When the Dutton-Littleproud Liberal-National Coalition team released our energy policy, Labor MPs gravitated to the nuclear energy component and plastered social media with cartoons of koalas and fish with three eyes.
Mallee residents are not amused as they struggle with the cost of living and the spike in their energy bills by $1,000 during Labor’s two years in office. Across the nation, energy prices are up 21.5 per cent over the last two years, while Labor’s 97-times promised $275 permanent energy bill relief has failed. A one-off $300 for households and $325 for businesses does not fit the bill.
The Albanese Labor Government is betting Australian jobs and the economy on unproven mass-scale hydrogen and batteries, supposedly ready to shoulder the load when Labor shuts down 90 per cent of the baseload power from coal and gas in just 10 years time.
The cost to produce, repair and dispose of renewable wind turbines and solar panels – and their impact on local fauna – hardly makes them environmentally friendly.
Wind and sun are weather dependent and therefore unreliable energy sources.
As I told Parliament before the winter break, renewable energy is in the winter doldrums due a combination of low wind and a lack of sunshine.
The Coalition’s energy plan simply mirrors what the rest of the developed world is doing – keeping renewables, backed up by the baseload power source of gas until it – like coal on a faster retirement trajectory – can be phased out of the system for a reliable nuclear baseload alternative.
Ontario, Canada, sources 60 per cent of its energy from nuclear, and their power prices are a quarter of ours.
However, Prime Minister Albanese calls nuclear energy “a crock” while awaiting AUKUS nuclear submarines (i.e. small nuclear power plants protecting our sea routes) and our major allies and trading partners depend on nuclear for their energy transitions.
The joke is on Labor, and voters are not amused.
