Net zero without nuclear ‘impossible’: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price blast over Coalition election policies

Liberal defector Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has told her new party that net zero emissions by 2050 is impossible without nuclear, as the conservative champion says Peter Dutton’s campaign ‘under-utilised’ her and was shackled by fear.

Liberal defector Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Picture: James Horan / TWAM

Liberal defector Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has told her new party that net-zero emissions by 2050 is “impossible” without nuclear and migration must be slashed, as the conservative champion says Peter Dutton’s campaign “under-utilised” her and was shackled by fear.

As Sussan Ley seeks to rebuild the Coalition, the newest member of her party room has declared the campaign failed to go as “hard” as it did in arguing its case to defeat the Indigenous voice to parliament.

In an interview with The Weekend Australian reflecting on the May 3 Labor a landslide, Senator Price said the Coalition had been paralysed by fear of “saying the wrong thing” and she had been restrained in speaking freely.

After repeatedly claiming she had been “blocked” from joining the Liberal Party room when she was first elected, Senator Price revealed she was told by the party apparatus that she had to sit with the Nationals if she wanted the first spot on the Northern Territory Senate ticket.

With the Nationals to decide if they will sign a Coalition agreement with the Liberal Party’s first female leader amid fraying consensus over climate policy, Senator Price expressed doubts about the viability of the net-zero target and reasserted her support for nuclear power.

She said it would not be possible to achieve net-zero emissions without atomic energy.

“It’s impossible, and it hasn’t been done anywhere in the world,” Senator Price said.

“And as we’ve seen, what’s ­occurred in Spain recently, where they have gone to 100 per cent renewables, that they’ve experienced a blackout.

Senator Price expressed doubts about the viability of the net-zero target. Picture: James Horan / TWAM

“That doesn’t work for an economy, that doesn’t work for emergency services, that doesn’t work for everyday people to have to be subjected to that sort of thing because of this push.”

Senator Price said she was not convinced the net-zero target had been “effective, worked, or ­provided any real outcomes for Australians”.

She added that the policy had “definitely created the cost-of-­living crisis” by driving up energy bills.

“I think we need to examine it more closely and have a very robust debate about this approach, and where it’s in fact taken us as a country, this rushing toward renewables,” she said.

Senator Price commended net zero opponent Nationals senator Matt Canavan, who recently challenged David Littleproud for the leadership, for putting the issue “on the table”.

Declaring that she intended to focus on women’s issues and immigration in the next term, Senator Price signalled her support for cuts to net migration.

“We’ll never bring immigration to a halt, but we need to make sure that those that are coming here have been effectively vetted, but also are bringing with them the skills that we need,” she said.

The former government efficiency spokeswoman said while it was up to Ms Ley to determine if Senator Price would continue in the role in the new shadow cabinet, it was an “important portfolio” and it would be “wonderful to be able to have that responsibility going forward”.

Senator Price refused to say if she still supported the Coalition’s election pledge to cut the public service and force bureaucrats back to the office, but she didn’t think the policy had been ­“provided in a smart way”, ­allowing it to be “weaponised” by Labor.

As the depleted Coalition begins its review into what went wrong at the election, Senator Price said the Coalition would have achieved a better result if she and her colleagues had been given free rein to speak with “conviction” on what they wanted to deliver for voters.

“I’m one that takes a fight right up to who we need to take it up to,” Senator Price said.

“I feel at times, I was restrained from doing that.

“But if you’re going to run a campaign, you need to have some of your able, willing and best fighters front and centre.”

Senator Price said she and other frontbenchers frequently felt “frustrated” at being unable to release policies they had worked on and watching announcements being made too late in the campaign or without “strategy”.

She pointed to the Coalition’s campaign against an Indigenous voice to parliament as an example of when it had successfully “prosecuted” its argument and changed the minds of voters.

“The campaign was led by fear,” Senator Price said.

“We relied far too much on things like polling.

“I would have liked to have seen an approach where we were executing an argument and pushing that argument to the point that the Australian people understood, much like what we did with the referendum.

“At the beginning of the referendum, there were 60 per cent of Australians in favour of it. But if we had gone by that, then we’d have toed the line and probably said, ‘ah, you know, Australians want this’.

“But no, we went hard. We went absolutely hard, and we prosecuted the argument as to why it was not going to be beneficial for anybody in this country, and we turned that polling around.

“That’s what we should have done with the election.”

Senator Price drew criticism from her new party room after she withdrew from the vote to become Liberal deputy leader after her running mate Angus Taylor lost the leadership contest to Ms Ley.