Not in my backyard: Liberals, Nationals go cold on nuclear

James Massola, Mike Foley and Olivia Ireland, March 25, 2024

It has not yet announced potential locations for nuclear sites but has signalled its intention to place them near existing retired coal power stations so they could be more easily plugged into the grid.

Nationals leader David Littleproud has already said he would welcome a nuclear power plant in his south-west Queensland seat of Maranoa. His predecessor, Barnaby Joyce, said he would do the same in his northern NSW electorate of New England. But another dozen Coalition MPs approached by this masthead on Sunday were unwilling to publicly welcome a nuclear power plant in their own electorate, though all said they supported their party’s position.

Opposition climate change and energy spokesman Ted O’Brien, who has played a key role in designing the forthcoming policy and who backs nuclear power to ensure Australia meets its emissions-reduction targets, has repeatedly stopped short of endorsing a power station in his Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax.

He said last week that three criteria had to be satisfied before a nuclear site was selected: technical feasibility, financial feasibility and acceptance from the community.

“That criteria should apply everywhere,” he said, including his electorate.

The opposition’s energy affordability spokeswoman, Melissa McIntosh, said her suburban Sydney seat of Lindsay would not host a reactor.

“There are no coal-fired power stations, certainly in my electorate and not at all in western Sydney,” she said.

This masthead spoke to 10 more Coalition MPs – Queenslanders Warren Entsch, Llew O’Brien, Colin Boyce, Michelle Landry and Keith Pitt, West Australian Ian Goodenough, Victorians Sam Birrell and Keith Wolahan, NSW MP Jenny Ware and Senator Dave Sharma about whether they supported the nuclear power policy and whether they would be comfortable hosting a power station in their seat or local area.

The nuclear policy of the Peter Dutton-led opposition has met with cool responses from Liberal and National leaders in state parliaments. Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto last week told ABC radio he did not support building a nuclear power station in the La Trobe Valley where coal-fired power stations are located, Queensland LNP leader David Crisafulli has said “no one will invest in it unless both sides agree to it”, while NSW opposition leader Mark Speakman has said he is awaiting the details of the federal proposal and that “at the end of the day we have to have energy sources that are clean, cheap and reliable”.

Energy experts have questioned whether nuclear power is feasible for Australia, with the CSIRO’s recent GenCost report showing that renewables such as solar and wind are cheaper than coal or nuclear power.

Dutton claims nuclear is a more reliable source of clean energy and that adopting nuclear power would bring Australia in line with other G20 nations. He has committed to soon revealing the proposed locations for six nuclear power plants.

Every federal Coalition MP approached by this masthead supported the policy of lifting the moratorium on nuclear power and potentially introducing the technology to Australia but, like Ted O’Brien and McIntosh, all of them also were cautious or non-committal about it being in their seat and emphasised the need for their constituents to be on board first…………………………………………………………………………

Littleproud said last week that “if the Australian people vote for us that’s a fair indication to premiers that they should get out of the way and let the adults in the room get on with the job”.

Those comments placed him at odds with a trio of state party leaders and underscored divisions within the party. https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/not-in-my-backyard-liberals-nationals-go-cold-on-nuclear-20240322-p5feko.html