Feasting on macadamia-dukkah crusted lamb backstrap and sipping on soft drinks and juice, a room full of consultants, accountants, mining lobbyists and energy entrepreneurs listened to Peter Dutton lay out his vision for a nuclear-powered Australia yesterday.
Those who were expecting answers to questions such as how much the plan would cost would have been disappointed. The speech in Sydney was loaded with lofty rhetoric — “nuclear energy in Australia is an idea whose time has come” — and attacks on Labor and the Greens, but did not address any of the most pressing questions, including about the price tag.
“Yes, our nuclear plan does have a significant upfront cost, but a whole new and vast transmission network and infrastructure won’t be needed,” Dutton said.
“Moreover, the cost of our nuclear plants can be amortised and spread over a reactor’s 80-year lifespan … we will release our costings in due course — at a time of our choosing, not at Chris Bowen’s or Anthony Albanese’s choosing — but our choosing.”
A question-and-answer session afterwards with Sky News journalist Chris Uhlmann was surprisingly tough, with Uhlmann reading questions from audience members chosen according to how many votes they received from others in the crowd.
Asked to expand on his claim that the costs would be able to be spread over the lifespan of a reactor, Dutton said: “There are many … players in capital markets, who are clambering over each other to invest in those sort of long-held assets with stable returns. There’s capital there.”
His speech notes no longer in hand, some of Dutton’s Q&A session zingers against his opponents felt confusing and flat. As a politician who reckons offence is the best defence, Dutton sprayed so many attack lines that some of them appeared to inadvertently strike at his own arguments.
Take for example this line, about his wish for nuclear bipartisanship: “It’s a bipartisan position in the United States and United Kingdom, in France, and nobody is disputing the juvenile approaches in a way that the [Albanese] government is doing.”
Or how about this one, from Dutton’s explanation for why the Coalition never tried to introduce nuclear energy when they were last in government: “Because I don’t believe it was possible before the AUKUS deal — Labor gave up any pretense of being concerned about safety when they signed up to AUKUS.”
Safety is certainly a major concern of many who oppose nuclear power in Australia, including a group of protesters who gathered outside the event at Sydney’s Martin Place.
Protester Alex Redmond, 81, told Crikey: “I’ve seen Japan decimated. I’ve seen what happens in Chernobyl, I’ve been to the museum in Ukraine. It’s frightening. Thank God I’ll be dead by the time [the nuclear plants] get built.”
Others were more positive — including Nyunggai Warren Mundine, who is nowadays focused on his roles on the boards of two mining companies, including one dedicated to uranium exploration.
“I thought he did well, you know, there were a lot of very good questions. He actually answered the questions,” Mundine told Crikey as the room emptied out. “The science is there to prove that it works, it gets better every year — and the economics are there. So to me it’s a no brainer.”
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