Federal Coalition MPs urge Queensland LNP leader David Crisafulli to back nuclear plan

Queensland LNP leader David Crisafulli must reverse his stance on nuclear power and get behind Peter Dutton’s energy plan, Coalition federal MPs in the state say.

David Crisafulli talks at a media announcement at Parliament House on Sunday. Facing a state election in October, he has rejected changing the state opposition’s energy platform to allow for nuclear power. Picture: Lachie Millard

Queensland Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli must back nuclear power and get behind Peter Dutton and local party members who support his radical energy plan, Coalition MPs in the Sunshine State have declared.

Successive polls have shown the Opposition Leader, Mr Crisafulli, and the LNP are on track to win government on Oct­ober 26 but concerns have been raised that his “small target” approach leaves him exposed on the energy front.

Mr Crisafulli doubled down on his nuclear stance on Thursday, reiterating that nuclear was not part of his energy plan, which includes bringing the Callide coal-fired power plant back online and ditching Labor’s Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro project.

“That’s been our position for a long time,” he said. “It’s not changing; Queenslanders know where we stand on.”

Member for the federal seat of Petrie and opposition assistant treasury spokesman Luke Howarth did acknowledge the timing of the announcement four months out from an election may no have been ideal but said Australians wanted honesty from a politician.

“What’s their objection to it? Costs, apparently,” Mr Howarth said. “Well, how much are we spending on renewables? How much are we subsidising renew­ables? At the end of the day, I don’t think Australians really mind, as long as their cost of living is not going to go up.

“For David Crisafulli, don’t tie yourselves up in knots over it. You can just say it’s not part of our plan, but if they lift bans in the future federally, then great, we’ll look at it again. It’s not hard, you just got to be honest.”

With early support for a nuclear plant in the areas surrounding Queensland’s two proposed sites at Callide and Tarong, LNP senator Matt Canavan believes “a majority of Queenslanders” would disagree with Mr Crisafulli’s position.

“You just hope that if he is elected premier, he would listen to the Australian people,” he said. “David hasn’t mapped out a significant agenda of things that he would fix.

“Will that come back to bite him? It would seem the Queensland people have made up their mind about this tired, lazy government. But I fear that if the next government doesn’t act quickly on the legitimate concerns of Queensland people, well, the people will grow tired of them pretty quickly too.”

Nationals MP Colin Boyce, who holds the central Queensland seat of Flynn that encompasses Gladstone and Callide, questioned how Mr Crisafulli planned to keep the country running while meeting his commitments to reduce emissions by 75 per cent by 2035.

“How are you going to keep the drag lines going in central Queensland that supply coal to the export industry, which supplies Queensland government coffers with billions of dollars of royalties,” he said.

“All of those heavy industries in central Queensland, how are you going to keep them going on solar panels, wind turbines and batteries? Because it is abundantly clear that these forms of energy production are not reliable, and they cannot power heavy industry on a 24/7 basis.” Mr Boyce holds the seat with a 4 per cent margin.

“Crisafulli and the state LNP team have continually played this small-target politics. They pursue youth, crime and health and cost of living and so forth, but they won’t address these issues facing all of us as Australians,” he said.

One Queensland federal MP toldThe Australianthey believed the state LNP’s current “no risk” approach to the election might backfire.

“In Queensland, they like people that are strong and stand up for issues,” they said.

Mr Crisafulli has dismissed a divide in the party as a result of his stance.