Gas, groceries and nuclear power: Littleproud make election pitch to voters

In it three years in opposition the Coalition have massively backed nuclear power, claiming it is the silver bullet that will end the cost of living crisis. But despite the pitch, important questions remain unanswered.

Leader of the National Party David Littleproud during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

In the weeks that followed the Coalition’s loss in 2022, Nationals leader David Littleproud put nuclear energy at the centre of his party’s re-election pitch.

But it has been three years and he is still unable to answer a simple question – where he would dump the waste generated by the seven nuclear reactors he wants to build.

The Maranoa MP made a lightning stop at Toowoomba show on Friday to argue his party’s case for re-election by focusing on natural gas, attacking Coles and Woolworths and again claiming nuclear power the golden bullet that would lay low the cost of living crisis

“Just a couple of hundred kilometres west of where I stand today, is much of that gas that we are going to flood into the Australian market, where Australian gas should be able to be used by Australians first.”

“In the short term, that’s the only way that we can get your energy bill under control. And in the medium term, it’s about a sensible transition of those coal-fired power assets as they get old to transition them into nuclear energy that is emissions-free, seven locations across the country.”

Those seven locations include two Queensland sites where the Tarong and Callide Power Stations currently stand and are due to be decommissioned in the next decade.

Mr Littleproud claimed his gas and nuclear plan was $263 billion cheaper than an all-renewables plan proposed by Labor.

When asked where the Coalition would dump its nuclear waste, the best answer Mr Littleproud could offer was at an yet-to-be decided, Federally-owned site.

“In the first instance, that waste is stored on site, and for end-of-life it will be stored where we’re going to store the nuclear waste from our Virginia Class nuclear submarines.

“We will deal with that nuclear waste at a site of the Australian government choosing, that will likely be at the site of an Australian Government institution.”

Mr Littleproud said the waste would be stored in the same place as nuclear by-products from the Lucas Heights medical facility, and our future fleet of nuclear submarines.

But the problem of where to dump the Lucas Heights waste won’t be solved anytime soon either.

Today about 20 tonnes of reprocessed fuel sits at Lucas Heights after the Federal Court blocked plans for a long-term storage site at Kimba, South Australia.

On top of this, the site houses about 2.400 cubic metres of low-level waste, like gloves and apron used during nuclear medicine.

It also temporarily stores spent fuel rods before they are shipped to France, the UK or USA for reprocessing.

The court found the Coalition Resource Ministers Matt Canavan and Keith Pitt had already made up their minds before announcing Kimba as the dumping ground, in a call that was opposed by the site’s traditional owners, the Barngarla people.

At his campaign launch on Friday, Mr Littleproud described the court decision as unfortunate.

“Has the current federal government, who had just dropped a check for $800 million to the Trump Administration for submarines, identified where that waste is going to go?” he said.

“No, because there are decades before you need to have that site actually identified and ready.”

Originally published as Gas, groceries and nuclear power: Littleproud make election pitch to voters