Peter Dutton’s nuclear power plants will be built at seven sites around the country.Credit:Monique Westermann
“I will be listening to locals,consulting the experts,and putting the needs of Gippsland and Latrobe Valley first,and endeavouring to act in the national interest at all times,” he said.
But South Australian Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey,whose seat of Grey includes the town of Port Augusta,welcomed the policy because there would be “a lot of jobs in the build,probably hundreds of jobs over the life of the reactor”.
“There will be an economic zone,and a portion of that power from the reactor will be allocated to the economic zone,and it will be up to[the] community to decide how they use it to attract new industries or businesses,” he said.
The owners of some of the coal plant sites targeted for nuclear development,including AGL,Origin,EnergyAustralia and Alinta,have previously said they have no plans to develop nuclear energy in Australia.
Origin Energy,the largest Australian power and gas supplier,warned that time and cost would be massive issues,while the Australian Industry Group also flagged concerns about cost and the increase in government debt. AGL,the owner of two of the locations earmarked for nuclear reactors,reiterated its warning that the debate risked derailing critical investment in the clean energy transition.
Labor says Dutton’s plan is ‘economic madness’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the Coalition’s nuclear policy as a “fantasy” that markets would not fund because it was 15 years away. “This is a recipe for higher energy prices,for less energy security,less job creation. This is economic madness,” he said on ABC Melbourne.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen accused the opposition of formulating a nuclear policy to boost the life of fossil fuels. “They say they want to pause renewable energy,and that is what this policy is designed to do – to slow or stop renewable energy,to rely on coal for longer as we wait for this nuclear fantasy to come about,” he said.
Illustration:Matt Golding
“The Australian people now have a very clear choice:stick with the plan,or go with this uncosted,un-modelled fantasy that Mr Dutton is proposing today.”
Dutton last week said the Coalition remained committed to net zero emissions by 2050 but would not reveal its interim climate targets until after the federal election,due by May next year.
The opposition leader has mounted a campaign against the Albanese government’s renewable energy plans by arguing that they will drive up power bills and destabilise the grid. On Wednesday,Dutton made an unsubstantiated claim that the federal government’s plans to supercharge renewable energy would cost more than $1 trillion and said nuclear energy would “cost a fraction of that.”
The renewable energy industry rejected Dutton’s claims about the technology,including his assertions that boosting the share of renewables in the grid would increase power prices and the risk of blackouts.
“Australia has no nuclear power industry,so building new reactors would take at least 20 years and cost six times more,” Clean Energy Council chief executive Kane Thornton said. “The Coalition’s nuclear policy is a recipe for delay and skyrocketing energy bills.”
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