The campaign against Indigenous Voice in Parliament was won thanks to a catchy slogan that destroyed Anthony Albanese’s hopes that Australians would vote with their hearts: If you don’t know, vote No.
Campaign managers and analysts on the Yes side couldn’t compete because they didn’t have the details of Peter Dutton convincing the Australian public they would need to make an informed decision.
That detail, Albanese said, would have occurred after the Yes vote.
Now the Prime Minister and his Labor government have the opportunity to throw that same line back at the opposition leader.
Dutton on Wednesday revealed his vision of a future Australia powered by nuclear reactors.
He made his speech to the voting public, even going so far as to say that he would be happy for the next election to become an “energy referendum.”
The campaign against Indigenous Voice in Parliament was won thanks to a catchy slogan that destroyed Anthony Albanese’s hopes that Australians would vote with their hearts: If you don’t know, vote No.
Dutton on Wednesday revealed his vision of a future Australia powered by nuclear reactors.
Campaign managers and analysts within the Yes camp couldn’t compete because they didn’t have the details of Peter Dutton convincing the Australian public that they would need to make an informed decision.
The Voice’s six-word referendum slogan is trending again on X, with hundreds of Australians arguing that Dutton has not provided enough detail to justify a mandate to go nuclear.
‘Somewhere in Australia there is a warehouse full of ‘if you don’t know, vote No’ merchandise. “Happy to get it off my back, I think there might be a market,” said one reviewer.
‘No information? If you don’t know, vote No,” said another.
During the Voice campaign, that phrase was constantly used by Coalition politicians during interviews, shared on the Liberal Party’s social media pages and even turned into merchandise by the official No campaign.
The Voice’s six-word referendum slogan is trending again on X, with hundreds of Australians arguing that Dutton has not provided enough detail to justify a mandate to go nuclear.
The Yes side tried to calm the sting of the slogan with their own, telling the public “if you don’t know, find out.”
But Dutton and the No camp argued that there were no details available to “find out”, as many of the details would not be established until after the referendum result.
Now, Dutton has fallen squarely into a similar trap, failing to provide sufficient answers to several key questions in the nuclear debate.
Dutton spoke at length on Wednesday about his plan to open seven nuclear reactors across Australia if elected in the next election.
Lithgow and Hunter Valley are the proposed sites in New South Wales, Mount Murchison and Tarong in Queensland and Traralgon in Victoria. Dutton proposes a site in South Australia at Port Augusta and another at Collie in WA.
Each of the locations are sites of current coal plants that will be closed or decommissioned.
Critics are now encouraging Australians to vote against Dutton’s plan due to a lack of details.
Labor has already spoken out against Mr Dutton’s proposal, describing it as “economic folly” and “ideological stupidity”.
Dutton said these would be owned and operated by the government, but he had no answers as to how the government would go about acquiring them, given that they are all currently privately owned and some have already been identified as future renewable energy sites.
But the main concern among critics and the government is that Dutton did not reveal any costs for the ambitious project.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said: “The reason Mr Dutton did not reveal the costs of his nuclear fantasy yesterday is because he knows it would increase bills.” Nuclear energy is the most expensive form of energy that exists.
And Labor MP Julian Hill added: ‘Biggest scam in decades! Peter Dutton wants Australians to pay for their nuclear reactors and pay more for electricity.
‘Nuclear energy is the MOST expensive form of energy. He won’t even say how many hundreds of billions of dollars this fantasy would cost.
The slogan was a very effective tool throughout the campaign
The Yes camp had difficulty winning over Australians who felt there was not enough detail in the proposal.
Dutton also did not go into detail about how he intends to win over state premiers who remain staunchly opposed to nuclear power in their backyards.
Nuclear reactors are banned in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, and each of those states’ Labor premiers has categorically ruled out overturning that ban for Dutton.
Asked about that hurdle, the opposition leader said: “We will work with state premiers, I see some debate about that, as you know someone famously said I wouldn’t stand between the premier and a bucket of money.”
Finally, the government of the day would need a majority in the Senate – or a policy supported by all deputies – to approve any legislation.
The Greens are opposed to nuclear energy and will not make any concessions to facilitate passage through the chamber.
Labor has already spoken out against Mr Dutton’s proposal, describing it as “economic folly” and “ideological stupidity”.
Labour’s Julian Hill became the first Labor MP to use Mr Dutton’s famous quote, sharing an image of a nuclear reactor overlaid with the message: “I don’t know?” Vote no’.
The opposition leader is already preparing for “the mother of all scare campaigns” following his announcement.
‘“We know that the Prime Minister and his Government will mount the mother of all fear campaigns about zero-emission nuclear energy,” he said.
“But we believe Australians are willing to engage in this debate and are open-minded about including zero-emission nuclear technology as part of a balanced energy mix.”