Election 2025: No need to visit sites, we’ve already won the votes on nuclear: Littleproud

Peter Dutton does not need to visit the site of a proposed nuclear power plant during the campaign because the policy is popular in those communities, Nationals leader David Littleproud has claimed.

Nationals leader David Littleproud addressing the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

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Peter Dutton does not need to visit the site of a proposed nuclear power plant during the election campaign because “we’ve already won the votes” in those communities, Nationals leader David Littleproud has claimed.

Mr Littleproud used a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday to declare internal Coalition polling showed the policy was popular in the seven sites it was proposed.

“There’s no need to go in an election campaign where you have already won the votes,” Mr Littleproud said.

“We have already won the social licence in those seven communities. Our polling clearly shows that.

“In fact, if you want to point, have a look at the last West Australian election where the Liberal Party got a 15 per cent swing to them in Collie.

“If it was visceral, in terms of the hate for nuclear power plants in those parts of the world, then I would have thought that the Liberal Party might not have done so well.”

The Opposition Leader has come under pressure during the election campaign over why he has refused to campaign on the site of a proposed nuclear reactor, despite one being in the marginal Labor-held electorate of Hunter.

Mr Dutton on Thursday would not say whether he would visit a nuclear site during the campaign, declaring the Coalition had listened to community views and “made our policy clear”.

“We made a tough decision not for political vote-winning exercises but for what is in the best interest of our country,” he said.

After declaring that he as Nationals leader “got nuclear up” as Coalition policy, Mr Littleproud later walked this back after he was asked whether he demanded Mr Dutton adopt nuclear in return for the Nationals’ support for net zero by 2050.

“Peter has had a long-held view,” Mr Littleproud said.

“The conversation that Peter and I had was one that, I think, he came from a philosophical position the same as me.”

Anthony Albanese visited the Collie Battery Storage System located at the Collie Power Station on Wednesday. Picture: Mark Stewart/NewsWire

Mr Littleproud accused Anthony Albanese of telling a “blatant lie” by repeatedly claiming the nuclear policy would cost $600bn, well above the $330bn forecast in the Coalition’s modelling, undertaken by Frontier Economics.

“The scare campaign that the Prime Minister has undertaken, predicated from the Smart Energy Council, an organisation that donates to the Labor Party, runs around with a scare campaign of a $600bn tag, is disingenuous at best,” Mr Littleproud said.

“But the Prime Minister has trouble with telling the truth.

“Our total grid (cost) will be just over $330bn. Their grid, an all-renewables approach, (will cost) just under $600bn.”

He accused Mr Albanese of a “puerile stunt” in turning up to a renewables project in Collie, highlighting Mr Dutton’s refusal to turn up to the coal-fired power station where the Coalition is proposing building a nuclear reactor.

“The Prime Minister didn’t go near the coal-fired power station in Collie, outside the staged event, (to listen) to those coal-fired power workers about their future,” he said.

“He went to a renewables project hidden from the reality.”