Opposition Leader Peter Dutton revealed the location of seven slow-to-build radioactive reactors – which would keep coal and gas burning for decades in a one page statement on 19 June.
Energy experts and communities have already spoken out, saying radioactive nuclear power is not worth the risk to our health and the climate. But we cannot underestimate Dutton’s ability to change public opinion and win next year’s election.
Seven locations have been selected for the slow-to-build nuclear power plants – delaying the urgent transition from polluting coal and gas.
In a statement today, the Moderator of the Synod of NSW and ACT said: “This is a disappointing distraction from the urgent need to transition our country to clean and affordable renewable energy,” Rev. Mata Havea Hiliau said.
“The proposal announced yesterday, which appears very light on detail, will only further delay the transition to renewables and lock us in too many more years of reliance on harmful fossil fuels, that are already proving devastating to our planet.”
The man who could be our next Prime Minister provided no other detail about a proposal that could leave communities with high-level radioactive waste for generations.
Energy experts like the CSIRO, communities, and state Labor and Liberal leaders are already speaking out against Dutton’s dangerous nuclear statement.
Dutton did not provide evidence of how much the plants would cost, explain how the Coalition would lift legislated federal and state bans on nuclear power, or say why the Coalition believed the first two plants could be online by 2035 or 2037 – a much faster timeframe than the CSIRO say would be possible who say it would take at least 15 years to build a large-scale nuclear power plant.
Other vocal opponents of the plan like New South Wales’ former Liberal treasurer Matt Kean, has dismissed nuclear as “hugely expensive” and a “Trojan horse” for the coal industry.
But Dutton’s not afraid to be light on details with the Murdoch press and the mining lobby behind him.
If Dutton wins the next election, the health of the communities that will be home to the power plants will be at risk: Collie in WA, Port Augusta in SA, Gippsland in Victoria, the Hunter Valley and Lithgow in NSW, Nanango and Gladstone in QLD
Forty percent of Australia’s energy already comes from clean, cheap, safe renewable energy. Australia is on track to be at 82 percent renewables by 2030.
“Climate change remains one of the most important social and moral challenges in human history and we have lost too much time on pointless political debate,” Rev. Mata Havea Hiliau said.
The Uniting Church Synod of NSW and ACT will continue to call the goverment to account as part of its commitment to the stewardship of the earth and its resources.