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The signature policy Peter Dutton hopes will propel the Coalition into government faces fierce opposition from his own side, with Queensland’s Deputy Premier effectively ruling out support for the nuclear plan.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Jarrod Bleijie said the federal Opposition Leader’s $331bn promise to build seven nuclear reactors by 2050 was a “Canberra battle” that was not supported by the Queensland LNP.
“We’ve said we weren’t going to be part of that battle, and we didn’t support that plan,” he said.
“Our plan is what’s going to drive down prices for Queenslanders sooner rather than later.
“We have our plan, Peter Dutton (and) the Opposition can have their plan, but that’s not our plan.”
Grilled as to what would happen in the event of a Coalition win, Mr Bleijie said: “It’s hypothetical who’s going to win the election”.
In another gut punch to his federal counterparts, the senior state politician confirmed he had not read the economic costings released by the Opposition Leader on Friday because he was too busy “running the state government”.
“We didn’t support it, Queenslanders didn’t support it,” he said.
“We took our position of not supporting that to the election, and guess what? Queensland has voted for that position.”
Ahead of the October state election, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, then in Opposition, also ruled out rolling back the state’s moratorium against nuclear power, even if it was removed federally.
In order to build two of the total seven reactors in Queensland, state law also requires a plebiscite, adding to the federal Coalition’s hurdles.
The sharp criticism has forced federal Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor to water down the condemnation.
“My experience with state ministers and treasurers in the energy area is over time they see the reality of the situation,” he said on Wednesday, referring to his time as energy minister between 2018 to 2019.
“Often it will take bad times for them to see the need … I think reason prevails in time.”
Jim Chalmers, who is also a Queenslander, said that while Mr Bleijie and him were on “different sides of the political fence,” it was evident that Queenslanders would not support nuclear.
“Queenslanders do not want a bar of the economic insanity, which is Peter Dutton’s nuclear fantasy, and the fact that a state, LNP government from the same political party and the same state as Peter Dutton has completely repudiated and completely rejected Peter Dutton’s Nuclear fantasy shows just how mad it is,” he said.
Labor has also seized on comments from Mr Dutton that a mixed grid firmed by nuclear energy would lower energy costs of 44 per cent, with nuclear also being 44 per cent cheaper than Labor’s proposed grid which would feature renewables firmed by gas and storage.
Mr Chalmers said the claim was either a “complete lie,” or an “an absolutely humiliating mistake” due to the absence of electricity price monitoring in the modelling.
“That’s one of the flaws,” he said.
“The reason why he won’t come clean the impact on nuclear, on power prices, is because Peter Dutton will push energy prices up, not down, and that’s because he’s gone for the most expensive form of new energy.”
However Mr Taylor maintained the Coalition’s plan would reduce costs to consumers as it would boost competition.
“The cost of electricity to Australians in this modelling is 44 per cent lower under our plan than Labor’s, and as long as there is strong competition policy in place, and there will be under us, then that should be reflected in Australian’s bills,” he said.
“It’s simple, its economics 101.”