Richard Marles called out on nuclear fearmongering

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie has challenged his government counterpart, Richard Marles, to ‘reassure’ serving personnel that nuclear submarines pose no medical threat to them.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie is concerned about the message the video sends to serving ADF personnel. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie has challenged his government counterpart, Richard Marles, to “reassure” serving personnel that nuclear submarines pose no medical threat to them.

It followed a Labor Party social media video which starred a former Victorian Greens candidate saying nuclear reactors can cause cancers, heart attacks and strokes.

In a letter, Mr Hastie says the video espoused “flagrant lies” and they would “undoubtedly cause concern among many Australian Defence Force personnel and members of defence industry who will be working on the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine program”.

He also challenged Mr Marles to “show leadership where the Prime Minister has failed” and to reinforce the government’s commitment to the acquisition of nuclear submarines under the AUKUS pact.

Earlier on Friday, Anthony Albanese dodged questions about the video when asked whether or not he agreed with the health risks being alleged about nuclear reactors.

“So what?” he said.

The response was later scrubbed from a transcript distributed by the Prime Minister’s office.

Mr Albanese said he was instead focused on the “economics of this issue”.

Mr Hastie said in the letter that it was of “further concern … the Prime Minister had the temerity to laugh off the issue, dismissing it with cavalier words”.

Separately, a video clip from August emerged of Coalition senator Matt Canavan saying the opposition had “latch(ed) onto nuclear” because it “fixes a political issue”.

“We’re latching onto it as a silver bullet as a panacea, because it fixes a political issue for us that it’s low emissions, and it’s reliable, but it ain’t the cheapest form of power,” he said in the video, an interview with the National Conservative Institute of Australia.

“If it was that cheap, Indonesia would be building those to power their nickel smelters. They’re not stupid. They’re building coal-fired power stations because they’re much, much cheaper.”

The government seized on the comments.

“I don’t agree with much Matt Canavan says,” Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said. “But I do acknowledge at least he’s honest on this occasion.

“Canavan admits the Coalition is willing to impose higher costs on Australians with the most expensive form of energy just to ‘fix a political problem’ for Peter Dutton’s divided party room.”

Mr Hastie’s letter to Mr Marles about the Labor Party Instagram video marks an escalation in the Coalition’s criticism. The video was published on Thursday and has not yet been taken down.

“I hope that you show leadership on this issue where the Prime Minister has failed, particularly to reinforce the Australian Labor Party’s bipartisan support for Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines,” the letter reads.

On Friday morning, Peter Dutton said Australia had to have a “mature debate about how we can have a reliable energy system” and that there were “all sorts of extreme views on the internet”.

The Prime Minister on Friday dodged a question on whether the video was part of a “fear campaign on nuclear”.

“I’ll tell you what’s scary, the failure of the Coalition to have any proper costings,” he said. “So, it’s now a week since they released their costings and it’s been a shambles.

“Peter Dutton’s been out there saying that they had a costing of consumers and how they would benefit. There’s nothing in this costing to indicate that that is the case. Nothing.”