For everyone Dutton’s nuclear fantasy
Peter Dutton’s rhetoric around nuclear versus renewables gives conservatives a platform to oppose a clean energy future without engaging in outright climate denialism, writes JAMES NORMAN.
When Peter Dutton and shadow energy Minister Ted O’Brien first started talking up nuclear as a viable solution for Australia’s long-term energy future earlier this year, they did so without releasing any detail about the costs, locations or risks involved in letting the nuclear genie out of the bottle. Instead, the push was framed as an attempt to save the country from the government’s “renewable only” approach, which Dutton described as “an engineering feat of pure fantasy”. This rhetoric gives the Coalition’s conservative base a platform from which to oppose Labor’s modest decarbonisation measures without engaging in outright climate denialism.
The Coalition’s plan has been roundly criticised by unions, environment groups, and concerned citizens. Even in the conservative press, some have raised doubts, with The Australian’s editor-at-large Paul Kelly questioning the political wisdom of the plan and naming the Coalition’s real agenda in plain terms: “This policy is based on disruption of the renewables rollout.”
In the regional towns where nuclear powerplants would be built, locals have already begun mobilising against Dutton’s strategy – including the proposal that part of the Latrobe Valley’s Loy Yang power station, due to be decommissioned next year, could host a nuclear reactor.
Latrobe Valley resident Wendy Farmer has been a supporter of renewable energy since experiencing the Hazelwood mine fire in 2014, which burned for 45 days and cast a toxic plume over the entire region. She says that while there are mixed opinions in the community, many locals are angry that they have not been consulted about Dutton’s plan.
“Our community is already transitioning to renewables, with $50 billion in proposed projects across Gippsland,” Farmer says. “The Coalition were the ones pushing the offshore wind legislation through before the last election … but now they have changed their tune – even helped organise protests against renewable energy.”
“We need all parties to support the renewable rollout, not hold back jobs that are already happening in this industry.”
Wendy Farmer, La Trobe local
Dutton claims that the first plant could be up and running by 2035 – but international examples show that large cost blow-outs and decades-long delays are common. On top of this, Farmer says the Loy Yang mine sits on an earthquake fault-line, making it an unsuitable site to host a nuclear reactor. The Coalition did not even consult AGL, the mine’s current owner, about its plans.
“Politicians like to play games in the house and with communities,” says Farmer. “They don’t represent the people. We need bipartisan support for regions, not a nuclear reactor fantasy. We need all parties to support the renewable rollout, not hold back jobs that are already happening in this industry.”
At the COP28 climate conference in December, the Labor government joined 120 countries in backing a pledge to triple renewable energy and double the rate of energy efficiency globally. This agreement was opposed by the Coalition – and the Nationals have taken it a step further, escalating their war on wind and solar by calling for a moratorium of the rollout of large-scale renewables.
The Coalition’s nuclear push directly threatens the momentum of the renewable energy transition currently underway in Australia and, according to Dr Jim Green, nuclear-free campaigner at Friends of the Earth, that is exactly its intended consequence.
“This nuclear push comes from the Nationals, who are stridently anti-renewables and pro-nuclear,” says Dr Green. “The Coalition opposes the government’s target of 82% renewables by 2030 and wants to expand gas and prolong the use of coal.
“The Coalition’s nuclear push is a direct and deliberate threat to Australia’s renewable energy transition.”
Dave Sweeney, ACF
“The Nationals would only agree to Coalition endorsement for ‘net zero by 2050’ if that included promotion of nuclear power as well as a massive regional subsidy package for Nationals’ seats being targeted for nuclear reactors,” he says.
In a recent address to the Minerals Council, Dutton said that, if elected, he would turbocharge coal, gas and uranium; defund the Environmental Defenders Office; and scrap new industrial relations laws designed to lift workers’ wages and conditions.
Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation says the excessive language and lack of detail is Trumpian in tone and bears little correlation to the reality and performance of the nuclear sector globally. “The Coalition has been flirting with nuclear energy since late last decade, but in recent times this has become a full obsession for Peter Dutton. It’s one thing to call for a national conversation but quite another to make nuclear power the centrepiece of your vision for the nation’s energy future.”
Sweeney says the fundamental drivers behind the Coalition’s nuclear push are its ideological opposition to renewables and its politically motivated interest in perpetuating fossil fuels.
“This is a direct and deliberate threat to Australia’s renewable energy transition. Dutton is opposed to large-scale renewable projects and is seeking to undermine certainty in funding. His plan makes no logical sense, as nuclear is demonstrably the slowest and most expensive energy option in Australia.”
