Is it the showdown Australia had to have or a dog whistle?
Today, the Coalition unveiled a bold and divisive plan, naming seven sites in five states where it envisions the construction of nuclear power plants if elected. This morning, Peter Dutton revealed plans for two nuclear plants in the Sunshine State, in Tarong and Callide (Near Biloela), located near existing coal mines and power plants. The proposal would see the nuclear power plants owned by the government under the same set-up as entities such as the Snowy Hydro scheme.
If successful, this move would be one of the most remarkable feats of political manoeuvring ever performed because generating nuclear power is currently illegal in NSW, Queensland, and Victoria. Any bill to overturn these laws would need the support of the Senate and the individual states and an enormous amount of social license. The road to nuclear power in Australia is not impossible, but it’s paved with significant legal and political hurdles.
When the announcement came out, nuclear power in Australia had few vocal supporters, but its opposition had many. Predictably, the Queensland premier, Steven Miles, slammed nuclear power as “four to six times more expensive” than the alternatives. The CSIRO’s Energy Report has said this is fundamentally true, although, as the AFR points out, there’s some question about it’s metrics.
The NSW Premier, Chris Minns, pointed out that a switch to nuclear energy would disrupt years of investment in renewable energy infrastructure, citing the “$30-odd billion of private capital invested in renewable energy, encouraged by both sides of state politics and both sides of federal politics over the past ten years.”
It appears that little thought has been put into the announcement, with few facts available on output timing and feasibility to support the statement. Energy Minister Chris Bowen said, “It is not a policy.” He told an energy forum hosted by The Australian newspaper. “It does not survive contact with analysis or reality,” he said. “No costings, no modelling, not even a number of megawatts or gigawatts and they haven’t even confirmed that they’ll release those things pre-election.”
Five of the seven seats are in Coalition seats: Muja in Rick Wilson’s seat of O’Connor, Loy Yang in Darren Chester’s seat of Gippsland, Port Augusta in Rowan Ramsey’s seat of Grey, Callide in Colin Boyce’s seat of Flynn and Tarong in Nationals leader David Littleproud’s seat of Maranoa.
The mention of nuclear power makes Australians sit up like meerkats, especially if it’s in their backyard. And if you look at the map, it’s in every capital city’s backyard. This is designed to start a national debate we had to have. It’s about time.
