Anthony Albanese slams Coalition’s ‘nuclear reactor rabbit hole’

Anthony Albanese will warn Australia ‘cannot afford to waste 15 years down a rabbit hole about nuclear reactors’ and must embrace clean energy to drive the net zero by 2050 transition.

Anthony Albanese in question time on Thursday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Anthony Albanese will say we “cannot afford to waste 15 years down a rabbit hole about nuclear reactors” and must embrace solar energy, wind power and green hydrogen to drive the nation’s net zero by 2050 transition.

Speaking at the Sky News/The Australian Economic Outlook lunch on Friday, the Prime Minister will tell business leaders the government is focused on “winning the fight against inflation” and last month’s budget was designed to reduce sticky inflation.

His speech, which promotes Labor’s Future Made in Australia Act, cost-of-living relief measures and plans to upskill workers, focuses heavily on the net zero transition and opportunities to unlock the country’s critical minerals and rare earths reserves.

Amid a growing pre-election fight with Peter Dutton over energy policy, Mr Albanese will urge voters to resist a Coalition ­“nuclear fantasy dreamed-up to delay real action on climate change”.

“Australia cannot afford to go back to the days when energy policy was about fighting for power in the Coalition partyroom rather than powering the nation. And we cannot afford to waste 15 years down a rabbit hole about nuclear reactors,” he will say.

“Because just as we will not find our security in isolation, we will not build our prosperity by standing still. Every business leader in this room understands that the world isn’t waiting around for Australia.”

In a clarion call to cashed-up superannuation funds and institutional investors, Mr Albanese will say there are “big opportunities” to help drive the national energy transition.

With the government providing multibillion-dollar investment and support for clean energy, critical minerals and rare earths miners, he will position Australia as a key player in global efforts to achieve net zero.

“We know the destination – and we know how virtually every nation plans to get there. By embracing clean energy: solar power, wind power, green hydrogen,” he will say.

“And in order to meet their targets, every nation will need more of the resources and technology that go into producing this energy: the metals and critical minerals and rare earths Australia has in such abundance.”

Mr Albanese, who spruiks tax cuts for “every Australian” and pay rises for 2.6 million low-paid workers, will say that without any change to current policies, the International Energy Agency forecasts mineral demand for clean energy technologies will double between now and 2030.

“If countries continue to ramp up their efforts to meet net zero, demand will triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040. This is not a bubble, or a blip. This is not a passing economic shock – it is a lasting economic shift,” he will say. “And Australia is home to everything we need to put ourselves at the very centre of it.

“Catering to new and growing global demand for our resources. And converting the global imperative to cut emissions into a national source of comparative advantage.

“Because we are moving to a world where the emissions profile of a product will become an increasingly significant consideration and cost factor.”

On the economy and inflation, Mr Albanese will say “from the outset our government has made it a priority to get fiscal policy working in concert with monetary policy”.

“Banking revenue upgrades, cracking down on waste. Bringing new rigour to the infrastructure pipeline – investing in real projects, on realistic timelines, in the national interest. Delivering better value, boosting productivity – and putting downward pressure on inflation.”

“Indeed, by taking $300 off the power bill of every Australian household from the 1st of July … as well as delivering a second consecutive increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance … our cost-of-living relief is expected to cut three-quarters of a percentage point off inflation this year, and another half a per cent next year.

“I want to emphasise this: we are getting inflation down – not in spite of the help we are providing with the cost-of-living but because of it.

“We are focused on winning the fight against inflation.”