‘Last place you want a reactor’: Anthony Albanese ramps up Labor’s nuclear fear campaign

Anthony Albanese has suggested residents in the NSW Hunter Valley would be in danger under the Coalition’s energy policy, in off-the-cuff remarks at a conference where he fell off stage.

Anthony Albanese is helped up after a fall in the Hunter. Picture: Jason Edwards/NewsWire

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Anthony Albanese has suggested residents in the NSW Hunter Valley would be in danger under the Coalition’s energy policy, declaring a major earthquake in the region more than 30 years ago showed it was the “last place” a nuclear reactor should be built.

The Prime Minister’s ramping up of the nuclear fear campaign came as Paterson MP Meryl Swanson – a former member of a parliamentary group supporting nuclear industries – gave conditional backing to a contentious wind farm being proposed off the coast of her electorate.

Speaking at a Mining and Energy Union conference in the seat of Hunter, Mr Albanese took aim at the Coalition for identifying the Hunter region as a potential site for a nuclear reactor.

His off-the-cuff comments on nuclear were made while delivering a mostly prepared speech, and were not included in a transcript of the speech distributed by Labor’s campaign headquarters.

“Our opponents need to find $600bn to pay for their nuclear reactors,” Mr Albanese said.

“I was in Young Labor at the time when that earthquake devastated this community.

“This is the last place where you put a nuclear reactor.”

Former Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon has been a backer of lifting the ban on nuclear energy.

In a campaign slip-up, Mr Albanese fell off the back of the stage as he greeted union workers at the end of his speech.

He was quickly helped up by union members who gave him a hero’s reception for his government’s same job, same pay reforms, which prevent employers from paying lower wages to labour hire workers.

Mr Albanese on Thursday campaigned in the Hunter Valley for the first time since calling the election, attempting to hold on to Coalition target seats of Hunter, Paterson and Shortland.

The region is set to be among those hit by Donald Trump’s tariffs, being a producer of aluminium, beef and wine.

The coal sector is a big employer in the Labor-dominated region, with the Coalition seeing an opportunity through the Albanese government’s rapid shift to renewables.

But Mr Albanese avoided blue-collar work sites, wineries and abattoirs as he stuck to safe ground, visiting an urgent care clinic and a union conference.

The electorate most at risk in the region is Paterson, held by backbencher Ms Swanson on a margin of 2.6 per cent.

Ms Swanson’s prospects are being hit by local opposition to the proposed wind farm off the coast of Port Stephens.

But speaking on Thursday, Ms Swanson said she would welcome the Hunter offshore wind zone if it stacked up economically and environmentally.

With offshore wind a key part of Labor’s renewables agenda, Ms Swanson said she “absolutely” supported the government’s renewable energy target of 82 per cent by 2030.

She said the wind farm had the potential to power one million homes and the Tomago aluminium smelter.

“It needs to stack up. It needs to stack up environmentally and economically,” Ms Swanson said.

“They are going to have seven years to do really incredibly detailed testing.

“If it does stack up it’s going to power one million homes and places like Tomago.”

Ms Swanson rejected claims the proposed wind turbines would put local whales in danger as “nonsense”.

“Whales have been swimming around oil and gas rigs, around coal ships. They’re smart creatures,” she said.