John Barilaro ‘bringing Bolshevism to NSW’ with Liddell plan: Shadow Energy Minister Adam Searle

NSW Shadow Energy Minister Adam Searle has slammed John Barilaro’s call to buy back the Liddell power station.

Mr Barilaro said the government should move to forcibly acquire the station. Picture: AAP

Shadow Minister for Energy Adam Searle has slammed Acting NSW Premier John Barilaro’s call to buy back the Liddell power station, likening the proposal to “bringing Bolshevism to NSW”.

Mr Searle’s comments follow Mr Barilaro’s announcement he would “absolutely” support a government-led acquisition of the Liddell power station if AGL refuses to sell the coal-fired plant.

“The Liberals and Nationals quite literally gave Liddell away for nothing and with it the right what AGL does with it,” Mr Searle said in a press release.

“Now AGL wants to invest in renewable energy it seems the state government wants to confiscate the asset like some Communist dictatorship,” Mr Searle said. “Barilaro is bringing Bolshevism to NSW.”

NSW Shadow Energy Minister Adam Searle. Picture: Richard Dobson.

In an interview with Laura Jayes on Sky News this afternoon, Mr Barilaro said the government should move to forcibly acquire the station if the energy giant fails to finalise a deal.

“I think AGL really has a conflict of interest here,” Mr Barilaro said. “We know they have interest in gas and renewables, we can’t afford to see Liddell come offline in 2022.”

Mr Barilaro said it was “fine” if Liddell “wasn’t in line” with AGL’s vision as a company, but they still had a “corporate responsibility” to “unload” the asset.

When pressed whether he would support a government-led acquisition of the station, Mr Barilaro said “absolutely”.

While, Mr Barilaro praised Malcolm Turnbull for doing “a wonderful job” at getting AGL to the table, “if that fails I think there’s an obligation that this state and the broader national network isn’t undermined by about 2000 megawatts of power at a time when we know energy consumption is on the rise”.

“If that doesn’t come from free will, maybe the government should consider using its powers to do so.”

The acting premier also addressed his speech at an energy policy forum in Sydney last night, where he called for small modular reactors and a shift to nuclear energy.

Mr Barilaro told Sky News that while he was “open to all technology” that provided energy security to Australians, it was his responsibility as a leader in politics to “debunk the myths about what people think nuclear energy looks like”.

“Often the debate is about what happened in Chernobyl or Fukushima,” Mr Barilaro said. “It’s actually about small modular reactors that in the next 5 years will hit the market”.