Labor state governments appear convinced that opposition leader Peter Dutton will win the next election judging by his response to their nuclear energy policy.
Even before he gave his budget response speech on Thursday night, nervous Labor figures began a fear campaign against his plan to convert disused coal-fired power stations into nuclear reactors.
New South Wales Environment Minister Penny Sharpe tweeted about a vote in the lower house to ban nuclear power in the state.
“Breaking news: The New South Wales Legislative Assembly has voted against nuclear power having a future in the New South Wales energy mix,” he said on Tuesday night.
“No representative of the Liberal or National Party voted for or against that proposal.”
Labor state governments seem convinced that opposition leader Peter Dutton will win the next election judging by his response to their nuclear energy policy (pictured with wife Kirilly).
Queensland Labor Premier Steven Miles attempted a pre-emptive strike on Monday after Daily Mail Australia revealed that Nuclear for Climate Australia, a group backed by Liberal and National MPs, had set aside 13 sites for a nuclear reactor.
“The LNP-backed Nuclear for Climate Australia has identified multiple sites in northern Queensland for nuclear reactors,” he said in a joint statement with the state’s Energy Minister, Mick de Brenni.
“This would include nuclear reactors in Townsville, Sunshine Coast, Rockhampton, Brisbane Valley, Toowoomba, Darling Downs and more.”
Mr Dutton’s budget response speech said Labor’s ‘renewables only’ approach to meeting Australia’s 2050 net zero emissions target had driven up energy prices.
“With nuclear energy we can maximize the highest energy output per square meter and minimize environmental damage,” he said.
‘We do this by placing new nuclear technologies on, or near, the abandoned sites of decommissioned or retired coal-fired power stations that use the existing grid.
“The proposed 58 million solar panels, almost 3,500 wind farms and 28,000 kilometers of new transmission poles and cables are not necessary.”
Dutton also invoked former prime ministers who personally supported nuclear energy, but who for political reasons were forced to put obstacles in the way of this energy source.
“Bob Hawke was a strong leader who strongly supported nuclear energy,” he said.
Even before he gave his budget response speech on Thursday night, they began a fear campaign against his plan to convert disused coal-fired power plants into nuclear reactors (pictured, Tihange, Belgium).
“Like John Howard, along with the Australian Workers Union and many others who have a vision for our country, including around 65 per cent of Australians aged 18 to 34.”
Although Hawke, as Labor prime minister, personally supported nuclear power, his party’s 1984 national conference introduced a ‘three mine policy’ that restricts uranium extraction to the Ranger, Nabarlek and Olympic Dam projects.
Howard, as prime minister, in 1998 agreed to ban nuclear power as part of a Greens amendment to win support for a new research reactor for nuclear medicine at Lucas Heights, in Sydney’s south.
But Australian Workers Union national secretary Dan Walton called in 2021 for the ban on nuclear power to be lifted and for the idea of small modular reactors that could produce 300 megawatts or 300 million watts of power to be explored.
“We already have uranium, why wouldn’t we develop the ability to use it in a modern, safe and effective way?” she asked.
His predecessor Paul Howes made that call in 2009.
New South Wales Environment Minister Penny Sharpe tweeted about a lower house vote to ban nuclear power in the state.
Queensland Labor Premier Steven Miles attempted a pre-emptive reaction on Monday after Daily Mail Australia revealed that Nuclear for Climate Australia, a group backed by Liberal and National MPs, had set aside 13 sites for a nuclear reactor.
“Nuclear energy should be part of Australia’s prudent strategic risk policy mix aimed at addressing energy security and climate change,” he told the Sydney Institute.
The AWU is one of the largest unions affiliated to the Labor right faction at the national conference, while Labour’s most vocal critics of nuclear power come from the left of the party, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese comes from.
Newspoll’s most recent poll put Labor ahead of the Coalition by 51 to 49 per cent after preferences, which is tighter than the 52 to 48 per cent result in the 2022 election.
But the Coalition would need a swing of 6.4 per cent to win 18 seats from Labor and barely form a majority government should climate change-focused teal independents in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth hold on to the wealthy electorates they won to the Liberal Party in 2022.
Dr Miles, the loser in the upcoming Queensland election, is campaigning against Dutton as one of his Labor predecessors, Wayne Goss, did in 1993, when federal Liberal leader John Hewson was the favorite to win the election with a 15 percent GST.
