- Exclusive
- Politics
- Federal
- Nuclear energy
This was published 3 months ago
‘Every day between now and the election’: Albanese ignites nuclear fight with Dutton
The next federal election will be a referendum on nuclear power versus renewable energy, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says, promising the government will campaign on the issue every day until polling day.
In an exclusive interview that signals Labor plans to pull out all the stops and make Peter Dutton’s nuclear power policy a central election issue, Albanese said it had been 670 days since the opposition leader first flagged the proposal and there was “still no detail, costings, no location, no detail whatsoever”.
Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese sparred over nuclear power in question time last week.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Albanese played down suggestions of an imminent reshuffle to deal with the government’s difficulties in the immigration portfolio. He also would not be drawn on Industry Minister Ed Husic’s recent call for the government to consider business tax cuts, arguing “we have our tax policy, it is a tax cut for every taxpayer”.
But the prime minister highlighted recent CSIRO research that found nuclear power is up to eight times more expensive than large-scale wind or solar power.
“They also found building a single nuclear power plant would cost at least $8.5 billion and take 15 years. At the next election, we will offer voters a choice between renewable energy and nuclear power,” he said.
“We will raise this every day between now and the election. [Dutton] needs to stop hiding his plans and release the locations of these planned nuclear reactors. We will join communities in campaigning against them.”
Albanese has repeatedly said he plans to go full term and hold the next election in May 2025 but some Labor MPs have told this masthead they believe there is a 50-50 chance the poll could be held by the end of this year.
But in a sign of the growing tensions between the prime minister and opposition leader over the contentious nuclear policy, Dutton fired back that Australians were witnessing “a slow-motion train wreck on energy policy under this government”.
“It’s little wonder the prime minister is reverting to childish scare campaigns on nuclear energy. It’s just embarrassing that the PM is having to go back to undergraduate activism in his opposition to nuclear energy,” Dutton told this masthead.
“Zero-emissions nuclear energy as part of a balanced mix of technologies gets prices down across the world while reducing emissions at pace. That’s why 30 countries already have nuclear in their mix, and they want more, and another 50 are looking to introduce nuclear for the very first time.
“The government has ordered nuclear-powered submarines, and they say that they’re all in favour of AUKUS – so why is nuclear technology safe for our submariners but unsafe for our citizens?”
The prime minister said Dutton had promised to look communities that could host nuclear power plants in the eye and engage with them but “he hasn’t been anywhere near [them]”.
“He has not been within 40 kilometres of a coal-fired power station. And he’s saying they’ll have six or more sites. He’s been nowhere near any of them in Gippsland, the Hunter, Flynn, Maranoa, O’Connor, seats like this,” Albanese said.
Back in 2007, when he was infrastructure spokesman in the Kevin Rudd-led opposition, Albanese helped lead Labor’s attack against John Howard’s plans to build nuclear power plants across the country – and he has not forgotten those lessons.
At the time, the ALP unleashed a series of damaging TV ads as well as campaign posters that zeroed in on the possible sites for nuclear power stations.
A nuclear power plant in Belgium. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton wants to introduce nuclear power generation in Australia.Credit: AP
Dutton had initially flagged the nuclear policy would be outlined before last month’s federal budget, but that timeline has since slipped.
This masthead then revealed the Coalition planned to unveil either six or seven sites had been selected to host nuclear power plants in the current parliamentary sitting fortnight but following that report, the opposition pressed pause on the announcement once more.
The Coalition’s policy announcement has now been pencilled in for the week after next, once parliament has risen at the end of next week, and is expected to take place outside of Canberra.
Possible sites for nuclear reactors include the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, the Hunter Valley in NSW, Collie in Western Australia, Port Augusta in South Australia, and even potentially a plant in Nationals leader David Littleproud’s electorate of Maranoa in south-west Queensland. All of these locations are on the site of, or near, current or former coal-fired power plants.
Coalition sources, who asked not to be named so they could detail internal discussions about the policy, said the six or seven MPs who would potentially host nuclear power plants in their seats had been notified.
The Resolve Political Monitor survey conducted in February found that 36 per cent of respondents supported nuclear power, 27 per cent of people did not have a strong view and were open to it, 23 per cent opposed it and 15 per cent were undecided.
But Labor strategists believe that once the potential sites are named – all of which are expected to be in Coalition seats – that will sharpen the political debate and force voters to consider the implications of having a power plant in their own seat.
A Dutton-led government, if elected, would face a fight with state Labor premiers including Victoria’s Jacinta Allan, NSW’s Chris Minns and Western Australia’s Roger Cook, who have all hosed down suggestions their states could host nuclear power plants.
Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, who is widely expected to lead the LNP to victory in a state election in October, has indicated he would not back nuclear power unless it had bipartisan support at a federal level.
Albanese said the Labor government opposed the construction of nuclear power plants in Australia for four main reasons.
“Nuclear reactors are simply wrong for Australia, the International Energy Agency said that this week, they support nuclear reactors but for Australia, given the comparative costs and time frames, it makes no sense given that we have access to the best renewables on Earth, along with hydro, batteries and gas to firm them,” he said.
“Second is nuclear is too slow [to build] to keep the lights on, the CSIRO speak about 15 years at least for it to happen. So you’re talking about 2040 just small modular nuclear reactors and years later, if they want to go down the large-scale route and Australia doesn’t have that time.”
“Third, relates to cost, nuclear will push up power bills – independent analysis from CSIRO, AEMO [the Australian Energy Market Operator], says nuclear is the most expensive form of energy to build. And the fourth is communities don’t want nuclear. That includes state LNP leaders that have said that, local councils, state and indeed even [federal] coalition MPs like Darren Chester and Dan Tehan.”
Back in March, 12 Coalition MPs told this masthead they backed lifting the moratorium on nuclear power in Australia but would not commit to hosting a nuclear power plant in their own electorate.
And Nationals MP Darren Chester, who holds the Victorian seat of Gippsland, which is widely considered a probable pick for a nuclear site, said he would not accept a site unless his community was handed a significant economic package.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.