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“Do I think the Coalition can win the next election? Yes, I think so. We can and we must for the good of our fellow Australians. Not just because we are trying to win, but because we are here as we have always been, for the forgotten Australians.”
After a week at the center of a heated political debate, opposition leader Peter Dutton sought solace in an audience of Liberal Party politicians, administrators and activists.
Supported by his deputy Sussan Ley, the opposition leader revealed his electoral commitments to the Liberal Federal Council.
At the forefront of his priorities is his nuclear power plan, which calls for opening seven plants across the country by 2035 on the sites of decommissioned or decommissioned coal plants.
Ms. Ley supported those commitments.
“Nuclear is safe, it’s reliable, it will produce cleaner, more consistent and affordable energy. Peter’s plan will mean a new generation of Australians will have the opportunity to learn world-leading skills and get good-paying jobs.”
Dutton revealed that two nuclear power plants will produce electricity by the middle of the next decade and will be built with public funding under a government-owned business model.
But the plan has been criticized for a lack of detail in the policy.
One of the main missing elements is the price.
Jenny McAllister, deputy minister for climate change and energy, says this is the multi-billion dollar question the government wants answers to.
“This is a plan where the bill will be paid by energy users, the risks will be borne by taxpayers and the costs will be borne by communities who will lose the jobs that will be created when the world moves to net zero. Mr Dutton does not he is offering a serious policy plan, he is offering poll-driven answers and he needs to get clear on the details and stop hiding those aspects of his policies that he knows are unpleasant to communities.
The prospect of building nuclear power plants in Labor-ruled states has received no attention from their respective prime ministers.
Instead, Minister McAllister says they are supporting the government’s transition to renewable energy.
“What we hear from experts analyzing our opportunities is that the cheapest way to create a reliable grid for Australians is wind, solar, battery-backed and pumped and gas-backed hydropower. This is what the experts we are told is the most expensive an effective way of meeting our energy needs, not a nuclear fantasy concocted to satisfy a political imperative for Peter Dutton.”
But Peter Dutton hit back at the US, saying it doesn’t follow the Prime Minister’s orders.
“I will work respectfully and collaboratively with state premiers, but I am not accountable to them. The decisions I make will be in our national interest for the benefit of the Australian people. Commonwealth laws trump state laws at the level of inconsistency, so support or opposition at the state level will not stop us from launching a new energy system because it is in our national interest to do so.”
With federal elections due in less than a year, displays of unity within the Coalition will be sorely needed amid reports of tensions within it over its controversial energy policy.