DUTTON’S NUKE PLAN DOMINATES NEWS
Australian newspapers are absolutely saturated with stories about Peter Dutton’s nuclear proposal this morning. From Western Australia to the east coast, front pages are dominated by takes on the Coalition’s announcement it will seek, if elected at the next election, to build seven nuclear reactors in five states. It’s hard to find a positive angle among the barrage of articles: the most encouraging spin comes from News Corp papers, which have highlighted the fact voters will be asked to decide their own energy future at the ballot box.
“Energy referendum gamble: Dutton’s historic power play” reads the top line of The Australian, above an all-caps headline saying “Voters’ nuclear option”. The Daily Telegraph called it Dutton’s “Nuclear strike”, arguing it would set up an “energy election”. The Australian Financial Review’s Phillip Coorey also focused on the fact voters will get a say in the matter, writing that Coalition electorates earmarked for possible reactors are feeling positive about the prospect, but pointing out it’s “one of the riskiest plays by an opposition since John Hewson released Fightback more than a year before the 1993 election”.
Guardian Australia leads with a story saying: “‘No credible reason’ to expect cheaper power bills under Peter Dutton’s plan, experts say”. The ABC reports: “Nuclear proposal rejected by premiers, who say Dutton has no power to lift state nuclear bans” (more on that below).
The West Australian has a splash on its website saying: “Dutton’s nuclear energy plan bedevilled by unknowns”. And so on and so on. At least no one can claim Dutton doesn’t know how to set a news agenda.
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
How are the local politicians in the areas where Dutton wants to build nuclear reactors feeling about the idea? In Queensland, where the federal Coalition would like to build two reactors, Liberal-National Party state leader David Crisafulli said on Tuesday he would not repeal the state’s nuclear ban and added nuclear was “not on our plan, not on our agenda”, per Guardian Australia. Crisafulli is campaigning for an election that will be held in October. Labor Premier Steven Miles wasn’t impressed either: “We’ve been very clear about the fact that we don’t believe in that model,” he said, according to The Courier-Mail.
NSW would also get two reactors under the proposal, but some state Coalition MPs feel negative about the idea there, too. Nationals MP Paul Toole, whose electorate would be a proposed reactor site, said “the announcement lacks detail and raises more questions than answers. I’ll be backing the views of my community 100%,” according to The Daily Telegraph. Dave Layzell, another Nationals MP whose electorate would be impacted, said: “I do not accept a federal government decision to lob a facility onto the community of the Upper Hunter.”
Labor Premier Chris Minns said he had no plans to repeal the state’s nuclear ban: “Our ban stays in place, we’re not repealing it. I’d be surprised if the NSW Liberal and National party want to repeal it as well.”
In Victoria, where Dutton wants to build one reactor, Premier Jacinta Allan said, according to the Herald Sun: “We won’t stand for that. We absolutely will not stand for that … it is unfathomable”.
In Western Australia, a Labor stronghold where another reactor was proposed, state Energy Minister Reece Whitby said the plan was “a recipe for disaster”, according to the ABC.
That leaves South Australia, where Dutton wants two reactors. Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas might be the Labor leader most warm to the idea of nuclear power, but even he wasn’t down with the Coalition plan. “I would support nuclear power unless it makes electricity more expensive, and all the evidence says that it will make electricity a lot more expensive,” he said, according to news.com.au.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Talk about a vintage: archeologists have found an urn in Spain containing wine that’s more than 2,000 years old. The newspaper El Pais reports: “The finding supersedes the Speyer wine bottle, discovered in 1867 and dated between 325 and 350 AD, which is preserved in the Historical Museum of Pfalz (Germany) and considered the world’s oldest known bottle of wine.”
The new discovery was made at a Roman necropolis in the city of Carmona in Spain’s southern Andalusia region. While the urn was actually filled with white wine, the liquid had turned red with age. Before you entertain any notions of having a sip, however, consider the fact there was a skeleton submerged in the booze.
Say What?
We will do everything to prevent the secession of the rich.
Sandro Ruotolo
In Italy, a proposal to reward authorities in areas of the country that run their affairs efficiently with more power has exposed a “deep wound in Italy’s national psyche”, Politico reports. The proposed law has exposed a geographic divide, amid accusations the Giorgia Meloni government is “abandoning” the poorer south in favour of the wealthy, industrialised north. Tensions came to a boil last week when a fistfight erupted in Parliament. Ruotolo, a centre-left MP from Naples, was one of the critics who used their words to oppose the proposal.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Despite Peter Dutton this morning unveiling ‘details’ of his plan to build a fleet of nuclear power plants across the country by 2040, we’re still no closer to understanding exactly how the Liberal leader will achieve such an improbable feat.
Dutton has committed the Coalition to building seven reactors on the sites of coal-fired power stations: two in Queensland, at Tarong and Callide, two in NSW, at Liddell and Lithgow, one at Port Augusta in SA, one at the current Loy Yang A site in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, and one at Muja in south-western WA.
There is a little detail in the timing. The glossy brochure handed out by the Coalition claims ‘the timeline for establishing a civil nuclear program in Australia including building two establishment projects is 10 to 12 years from the government making a decision until zero emissions nuclear electricity first enters the grid.’”
“Tickets to Tucker Carlson’s Australian speaking tour have been cut to less than a quarter of their original price, with hundreds of tickets still available for next week’s events.
In April, United Australia Party chairman Clive Palmer announced he was bringing over Carlson for a country-wide tour called the Australian Freedom Conference, presented by Palmer’s mining company Mineralogy.
In a media release spruiking the event, the former Fox News host spoke of his excitement at coming Down Under. ‘I know many Australians feel the same way, and I’m excited to meet them,’ he said.”
“Liberal Senator Jane Hume, the shadow minister for finance, gave a rather interesting speech at the Sydney Institute on Tuesday night. While Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s criticisms of the 2030 emissions targets last weekend were said to have reignited the so-called climate wars ahead of the next federal election, Hume’s comments were arguably aimed at reigniting the gender wars.
Given the contents of Hume’s speech, and the absolute hammering that women voters gave the Coalition last election, I am not sure that was a good idea.
First, a brief recap of the Liberal Party’s dire position with women voters. The 2022 Australian Election Study, the leading barometer of political attitudes and behaviour for 25 years, asked the following question: to what extent are claims that women cost the Coalition the election supported by the evidence?”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Putin says Russia and North Korea will help each other if attacked, taking ties to a ‘new level’ (CNN)
Dutch leader Mark Rutte clears a big hurdle to becoming NATO chief after Hungary lifts objections (Associated Press)
Russian warships leave Cuba after five days (BBC)
‘Drone sanctions’ burn Russian oil reserves (The Guardian)
Israel and Hezbollah play a risky tit-for-tat, leaving region on edge (New York Times) ($)
In South China Sea dispute, Philippines’ bolder hand tests Beijing (Reuters)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Civil war, what civil war? The so-called Tory moderates never even put up a fight — Rafael Behr (The Guardian): “[Conservative] ministers have resorted to pleading with voters not to give Keir Starmer too big a majority. There is a deficit of drama in the contest to be prime minister. The gap is filled with speculation over the size and character of Britain’s next opposition.
Convention dictates that this be construed as a civil war. On one side is the remnant of the traditional Tory party that David Cameron led until 2016. These are MPs who mostly voted remain and endorsed Theresa May’s Brexit deal. They venerate fiscal discipline and managerial sobriety. They are moderate, at least by demeanour and in comparison with the other side — a messy coalition of nationalist demagogues, social reactionaries, libertarian ultras and Brexit puritans who hanker for congress with Nigel Farage’s Reform party. In reality, the lines are blurred. Vibes count for more than policy.”
Peter Dutton’s expensive nuclear folly another deplorable outcome after ditching carbon pricing scheme — Tom Dusevic (The Australian) ($): “If voters decide they want to have nuclear power to achieve net zero by 2050, it won’t come cheap: higher debt and taxes and the heavy hand of government ownership that has bequeathed money pits like the NBN and Snowy 2.0.
There is no other way because private capital won’t go anywhere near this risky energy play, with huge upfront costs, very long lead times and the madness that has pervaded our energy transition to meet international obligations. Peter Dutton is all the way with enriched uranium, with details to follow, presumably on costs, benefits and how we’ll cover the period before the first power plants are online in 2035 and 2037.
A new government business enterprise may be “off-budget”, as many of today’s green industry and decarbonisation measures are, but their funding and financing won’t be a free lunch. This is pure folly with taxpayers’ money at this time, in this way.”
