Editor’s view: Anti-nuke debate no more sophisticated than a fart joke

Has the level of political discourse really sunk to the point where you think that to win a debate you just have to post the most outrageous cartoonish meme, asks The Editor.

Has the level of political discourse in our democracy really sunk to the point where you think that to win a debate you just have to post the most outrageous cartoonish meme?

It seems so, based on the breathless reaction from Labor MPs to the federal Coalition’s proposal to build seven nuclear power plants.

Instead of engaging in the debate on the very reasonable questions of construction costs and likely price increases to consumers, federal Labor MPs fell over themselves today out-do each other in reaching as deep as possible into the nuclear trope barrel – discarding any pretence of intelligent thought for some seriously outdated nuclear scaremongering instead.

Labor MP Andrew Leigh claimed nuclear would lead to deformed koalas.

Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh led the way with a tweet featuring a three-eyed Blinky Bill koala standing outside the nuclear power plant from the Simpsons cartoon television show.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan also reached for the 1990s television remote for her post which featured three three-eyed fish from the same show jumping out of the water of a Gippsland lake, with four glowing uranium rods thrown in for good measure – and the cartoon’s 38-eyed pink, mutated squirrel smiling through its fangs from the dock.

Seriously. These contributions are no more sophisticated than a fart joke.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen shared the above. Picture: Supplied

Enter Townsville Liberal MP Phil Thompson, who delivered the day’s most cutting and incisive retort: “Do you think,” he asked rhetorically of Mr Leigh, “our submariners will develop three eyes by being on a nuclear-powered submarine? Didn’t you vote in favour of AUKUS? Didn’t you vote in favour of our Navy getting nuclear-powered submarines?”

As we said yesterday, the nuclear power debate is one we should have as a nation. And Labor is right that at the moment it is not far from the realm of fantasy, with no costings provided by the Coalition – let alone details on how we could possibly build seven of these massively expensive plants before our coal-fired power stations are retired. This should be fertile ground for Labor.

But for government MPs to think the most suitable response was to mock it with cartoon memes – and dismiss it all as just “the dumbest policy ever”, as Treasurer Jim Chalmers did – is treating the Australian voting public as fools.

Being so fresh, there is yet to be a proper opinion poll to capture the mood of the electorate to the plan.

But the unscientific news website polls so far have all suggested there is clear majority support for at least a debate over the introduction of nuclear power generation here.

The sneering attitude of Labor MPs is reminiscent of their attitudes towards the Voice to Parliament referendum question early last year – when they simply assumed their own echo chamber reflected the mood of the nation. You would think they would have learned.

This remains a crazy brave move by Mr Dutton. It opens up a new front for Labor and the Coalition’s other political opponents, such as the Greens, to take advantage of in the lead up to the next election.

That is because scare campaigns do work. But the successful ones require two key elements. First they must be based on a kernel of truth – there must be enough evidence to make the claim credible. Second, they must play to an existing bias or belief. As former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in the wake of the 2016 Mediscare campaign that convinced 50 per cent of voters that the Coalition had a secret plot to privatise Medicare, Labor had enjoyed “fertile ground in which that grotesque lie could be sown”.

Not only does reaching for the Simpsons memes not pass those most basic tests, but surely these sneering Labor MPs learned – like the rest of us – in school that while winning a few giggles from your mates sure is fun, it is never enough to actually carry a serious debate.

Originally published as Editor’s view: Anti-nuke debate no more sophisticated than a fart joke