Politics Now: Liberals' nuclear case 'crumbling like sao in a blender', Chris Bowen says
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has disputed claims by his opposition counterpart Ted O’Brien that a nuclear reactor could be built in Australia within 10 years.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has accused Foreign Minister Penny Wong of being "too scared" to reinstate UNRWA funding.
Speaking at a pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne, Ms Thorpe called out Ms Wong for being afraid of her Labor colleagues as Sweden and Canada resumed funding to the United Nations aid agency on Saturday.
"All she [Ms Wong] has to do is release the funds to ensure that humanitarian aid is available yesterday, the day before. Not next week, urgently," she said.
"Penny Wong is too scared of others in her government, like the Attorney-General, who holds the key to genocide in this country."
– Mikaela Mulveney
Netanyahu 'hurting more than helping Israel': Biden
US President Joe Biden said Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the war in Gaza was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” during an interview with MSNBC broadcast Saturday.
Netanyahu “has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,” Biden said, but added that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
– AFP
Fuel efficiency standard 'wont drive up car prices'
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has disputed that the fuel efficiency standard will increase the price of cars, arguing that it hasn’t “happened anywhere else in the world and why would it happen in Australia”.
Mr Bowen disputed claims that the new vehicle efficiency standard would drive up the cost of utes and other vehicles, rejecting Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s claims about the policy as fearmongering.
“This is a ridiculous scare campaign from Peter Dutton,” he told the ABC’s Insiders.
“Peter Dutton is arguing that Australians deserve less choice and should be paying more for more petrol.
“He can make that argument if he wishes. The government chooses to make the argument that it's about time Australia catches up with the rest of the world and gives Australians better choices.
Libs' nuclear case 'crumbles like a sao in a blender'
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has rejected claims by the Coalition that Ontario in Canada has lower power bills than in Australia because 60 per cent of their energy was nuclear generated.
“It's a cool story. It's not true, is the only problem with it,” Mr Bowen told the ABC’s Insiders.
“Two things about Ontario: one, what Mr Dutton doesn't tell you is the Ontario state government subsidises energy bills in Ontario by $6bn Canadian dollars a year.
“If he's planning to do that he better tell us some time soon, secondly, look at Quebec, the province next door to Ontario which is 98 per cent renewable, their power prices are less than half what they are in Ontario which is predominantly nuclear.
“The problem is with all Mr Dutton and Mr O'Brien's cases for nuclear, when you put scrutiny on them, they crumble like a sao in a blender.”
'Tell him he's dreamin': Bowen slaps down nuclear plan
Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has disputed claims by his opposition counterpart Ted O’Brien that a nuclear reactor could be built in Australia within 10 years, responding “tell him he’s dreaming” to the proposal.
Mr Bowen has criticised the Coalition's push to introduce nuclear power to the electricity grid, describing the energy source as expensive, with projects typically running overtime.
“Tell him he's dreamin'; I don't know what experts he is talking to,” Mr Bowen told the ABC's Insiders.
“I just heard you talking about Europe's experience, pointing to the US experience, the US with a very developed regulatory regime, with a very developed nuclear industry, the nuclear leader of the world, the average build time of a nuclear power plant in the US is 19 years.
“Ted O'Brien thinks he can do it in Australia in 10 with a standing start, no regulations, banned not only nationally, but throw in the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and you might sell him something.”
Mr Bowen said he would not consider lifting the ban on nuclear power to let the “market sort it out”, arguing that overseas, every country with nuclear power has required “massive transfers of taxpayer wealth to the nuclear constructors”.
“The poster child of large nuclear reactors is Hinkley C in the UK which is very, very late and has come in at $86 billion for a three gigawatt, just over three gigawatt nuclear power plant, coal in Australia is about 22 gigawatts, do the maths,” he said.
Australia 'could have nuclear up and running in 10 years'
Opposition energy spokesman Ted O'Brien says Australia could have a nuclear power plant up and running in ten years, accusing Labor of “lying to the Australian people” that energy prices would go down.
Mr O’Brien declined to confirm the Coalition policy will propose five to six sites to house a nuclear reactor when asked, saying that the policy would be announced in due course.
“The best experts around the world with whom we've been engaging, are saying Australia could have nuclear up and running within a 10 year period,” he told Sky News.
“Now, there's no doubt that a workforce is key. It doesn't matter what path you ventured down.
“If you look at Labor's path right now, 82 per cent renewables in the grid by 2030, they are 30,000 sparkies short.”
Mr O’Brien said the US and the UK which have nuclear industries including nuclear submarines needed the civil industry to support the power generation to build the workforce.
He accused Labor of lying about energy prices, arguing that the government needed to learn from other countries.
“If we are not prepared to be humble enough to learn from other countries who are getting it far better than Australia is on their energy system, then we're just going to be locked into a pathway dictated by Labor, who has lied to the Australian people,” he said.
“(Electricity prices were) going to go down, remember $275 reduction household promise? “Well, that's not happening, emissions are going up in Australia for the first time in years.”
Mr O’Brien also confirmed that under the Coalition's plan nuclear waste would be stored on site as it is overseas, arguing that this was the same plan the Labor had to deal with the waste produced by the AUKUS submarines.
“For a civil industry in Australia, we would do as they do overseas and be stored on site, and that's for a permanent storage facility,” he said.
Opposition energy spokesman Ted O'Brien has rebuffed criticism that Australia does not have the skilled workforce to operate nuclear reactors, arguing that “we are already a nuclear nation” with some experience in nuclear technology.
“We indeed need to be working with our international partners,” he told Sky News.
“It's not just about the importance of a reactor, it is the importance of the entire supply chain, project management.
“Nobody, at least no one on the coalition side is suggesting that suddenly we are going to be designing our new reactor and going towards a first of a kind.
“Only a few months ago, I was in the UAE so too was Chris Bowen, my counterpart, attending COP.
“Now if you look at what the UAE has done, within a 12 year period, they introduced large reactors from South Korea. I mean, these are Generation III, the APR 1400s.
“From a standing start, they were able to then introduce reactors, though introduced reactors, one a year right once they got up and running.
“That was from a standing start, Australia is not a standing start, we are already a nuclear nation.
“We already have a nuclear reactor 30km outside of Sydney, we have the world's largest reserves of uranium. We are now adopting nuclear propelled submarines. We're not starting from scratch.”
Ted O'Brien says without nuclear in the mix, there is no 'credible' path to net-zero. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage
Opposition energy spokesman Ted O'Brien says Australia’s only path to net zero emissions while keeping the lights on is to build a nuclear reactor, pushing the nation to follow the US, Britain and Japan in adopting the technology.
“What we have seen across the world is that countries are moving more and more to have nuclear in the mix, because it gets prices down, keeps the lights on, and of course it's zero emissions,” he told Sky News.
“And this is why Australia needs to seriously be looking at this.
“You have over 30 economies right now with nuclear, and wanting more, another 50 in the world wanting to introduce nuclear for the very first time.
“And here in Australia we are paying among the highest energy bills in the world, our grid is wobbling with threats of blackouts, we're already experiencing some blackouts and we need to get to net zero.
“So I stayed with our peers, with the United Kingdom, the United States, with Japan, with Canada and others who made it crystal clear; if you want to get to net zero and make sure energy is still affordable and reliable, you must have zero emissions, you must have nuclear in your mix.
“In the absence of that, you don't have a credible pathway to net zero.”
Trade Minister Don Farrell says Australia’s trade dispute with China over wine tariffs will soon come to an end, revealing that he is waiting on Beijing to complete its internal review by the end of March.
Senator Farrell said he had “built up a strong relationship” with his Chinese counterpart and he expected it to lead to the repeal of trade tariffs on wine and lobster.
“We're now simply waiting for China to complete its processes,” he told Sky News.
“I'm hopeful that at the end of that process, China will lift all of its tariffs on Australian wine, but if they don't, then we will continue with our World Trade Organisation dispute.
“And we will win that dispute, but this is the easiest way of getting fantastic Australian wine… back on the kitchen tables of Chinese consumers.
“As far as lobster is concerned, I also raised that issue and again, I've got an understanding from the Chinese authorities that they are reviewing the issue of our lobster coming into China.
“So everything is heading in the right direction.”
Dutton 'looking for a reason not to support net zero'
Senator Don Farrell during Question Time in the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman
Trade Minister Don Farrell has rejected Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s proposal to generate nuclear power, accusing him of looking for a reason “not to support the net zero project”.
“Unfortunately, the reality is that we've missed the boat on nuclear power,” he told Sky News.
“To wait 20 or 30 or 40 years to build a nuclear reactor is simply out of the question, and of course, it's the costs.
“The Albanese government, we want to be a renewable superpower: We've got endless amounts of sunshine, lots of wind, we're developing hydro, and pretty soon we'll have hydrogen in the mix.
“All of those renewable energy sources will be available well before any opportunity to ever introduce nuclear.
“So in terms of cost, in terms of time, renewables are the way to go.
“Mr Dutton is simply looking for reasons not to support the net zero project because of internal problems within the Coalition.
“So we're going to continue to do what we're doing, again, (Energy Minister) Chris Bowen is doing a terrific job in this space. We're going to move to renewables and it’s going to be a long time before anybody ever gets to any consideration of nuclear energy.”
Anthony Albanese is under pressure to explain why he and no-one else acted when he was first warned in 2014 by a CFMEU whistleblower that the union was being infiltrated by criminals.
Anthony Albanese has failed to rule out a double dissolution election as he blasted the 'no-alition' of the Greens and Coalition for failing to vote 'for legislation they support'.
