The New South Wales Liberal leader’s local branch is seeking to get party support to object to renewable energy zones in the Hunter and Illawarra region and investigate small modular nuclear reactors “as the alternative”.
Mark Speakman’s branch of Cronulla will move a motion at the state Liberal party convention on Saturday calling for the party to reject the renewable energy zones on economic and environmental grounds. The motion also includes calling for the NSW and federal governments to scrap the zones – which would include solar and windfarm projects – completely.
Asked whether he would support the motion, Speakman backed renewable energy zones in the Hunter and Illawarra regions, saying the party remains committed to its energy commitments made while in government.
“We remain committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, with interim targets,” Speakman told Guardian Australia.
“While other technologies could be important, renewables will play the major role in achieving this.”
The motion comes as the Coalition, which introduced legislation for the development of an offshore wind industry while in government, has been fanning opposition to the proposals in the Illawarra region, where a consultation period ended last week, and the Hunter region, where a 1,800 sq km offshore windfarm zone that starts about 20km from the coast was declared in July.
The Liberals at both the state and federal level have been pushing back against renewables and instead promoting small modular nuclear reactors as the answer to Australia’s energy needs.
However, earlier this month the only company to have a small modular nuclear power plant approved in the US – cited by the opposition as evidence of a “burgeoning” global nuclear industry – cancelled its first project due to rising costs.
The global head of Westinghouse, who visited Australia in October, said the company could provide a single 300MWe reactor at a cost of about $1.5bn each, but setting up an industry in Australia would take at least 10 years.
On Thursday, it was announced Australia’s first offshore windfarm could be ready in 2030 after major project status was granted to Flotation Energy’s Seadragon, located in Victoria’s Gippsland offshore wind zone. Situated adjacent to oil and gas platforms, the project is designed to replace coal-fired electricity generation.
The project is the second to be granted major project status, which will cut red tape on approvals and make financing more attractive to investors, after another project off the coast of Gippsland, the Star of the South offshore windfarm, was granted major project status last December.
Flotation Energy Australia’s head of operations, Carolyn Sanders, said the project would bring $6bn of investment into the region.
“This forms part of an estimated $40bn of proposed energy projects that are already creating employment opportunities and will ultimately lead to a construction boom and long-term operation and maintenance jobs,” she said.
Gippsland was the first of the six offshore wind zone areas – which include the Hunter and Illawarra regions – announced by the Albanese government and was met by the community with relatively little controversy.
But in the Illawarra and Hunter regions, the proposals have divided a portion of the community and misinformation about the proposals has been rife. Of particular concern has been the claim by those against proposals that offshore windfarms kill whales, despite there being no credible scientific evidence to back this.
The Cronulla Liberal branch’s motion’s call to investigate small modular nuclear reactors as an alternative echoes the federal Coalition’s view that they could be an affordable replacement for ageing coal-fired power plants.
Leigh Shears, the secretary of Hunters Workers, which backs the region’s windfarm going ahead, said the motion was “political opportunism” and there is broad support for renewables.
“The time for division is done,” he said. “[Small modular nuclear reactors are] just a pie-in-the-sky idea. If they were really keen on that stuff, they could have started 10 years ago when they were in power.
“We need those in power to be playing a more practical role in bringing communities together.”
– Additional reporting from AAP
