Nuclear battle to resume as Coalition doubles down on Dutton’s push

5 days ago 4

Nuclear technology will be a central plank of the Coalition’s energy policy heading to the next election, as opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan argues it is essential to modernise the electricity grid, blaming Labor “disinformation” for its previous failure.

The Coalition went to the May election, which it lost badly, with a policy of building nuclear power plants across the country and has been sharply divided about energy and emissions issues since.

But Tehan told ABC radio on Thursday: “There is overwhelming agreement on the Coalition side that nuclear needs to be part of our energy mix.”

Radioactive material is broken down at the Idaho National Laboratory, which was key to the development of modern reactors.

After the Nationals briefly split from the Liberals following the Peter Dutton-led opposition’s election defeat in May, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley brokered a truce with the junior Coalition partner that included support for lifting Australia’s moratorium on nuclear energy.

However, Tehan said the Coalition plans to do more than just lifting the legislative ban on the technology, promoting the need to build nuclear plants to help lower greenhouse emissions from the electricity and supplement intermittent supplies of renewable energy.

“I have no doubt that my colleagues, like I do, see very much a future for nuclear as part of our energy mix here in Australia,” he said.

Cook MP Simon Kennedy, who represents one of the Liberal’s handful of remaining metropolitan seats in southern Sydney, has urged the Coalition to stick with its pledge to hit net zero emissions by 2050 to appeal to urban voters and backed Tehan’s move.

“Australians deserve cheaper, more reliable, lower-emissions energy – but after three years of Labor, prices are up 40 per cent and emissions aren’t dropping. We’re focused on practical solutions like nuclear that deliver all three,” Kennedy said on Thursday.

When she was elected to replace Dutton, Ley said she would not make any captain’s calls – unlike her predecessor – and tasked Tehan with leading a review of the Liberal’s commitment to net zero.

Debate in the Liberal and Nationals party rooms will be heated, with Nationals Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan, as well as Liberals Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Price, advocating to ditch the policy, which is a prerequisite of Australia’s commitment to the Paris Agreement.

Dutton promised to use taxpayer funds to build nuclear power plants across the country, including large-scale plants as well as small modular reactors that are in development but yet to be commercialised.

The Coalition cited modelling that costed its nuclear plan at $330 billion, but Labor claimed it would be $600 billion. “The disinformation, misinformation campaign that was run by the Labor Party ... put a fear on our costings,” Tehan said.

Tehan has not confirmed whether his policy would include public funds or large-scale reactors, but has promoted the potential of modular reactors to feed power-hungry data centres and complement renewables, which are the bedrock of the Albanese government’s energy policy.

“Energy abundance is going to become the key word or keywords going forward, and we’re going to have to be able to provide for that energy abundance, otherwise Australia is going to be left behind,” Tehan said.

Australian Conservation Foundation nuclear policy analyst Dave Sweeney said the Coalition would face similar backlash from anti-nuclear protesters if it continued to push for the technology.

“The Australian people rejected Dutton’s policy, right across the country and if the Coalition goes down this path it will be strongly opposed by environment organisations and the energy industry,” Sweeney said.

Ahead of the past election state premiers, except for South Australia, as well as energy companies that own the sites where Dutton planned his reactors, said they would not cooperate with plans for nuclear energy.