Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stepped up his political campaign with fresh criticism of the Opposition’s nuclear strategy while visiting Queensland.
The Opposition has proposed a $330 billion (US$206 billion) plan to build seven nuclear power plants across the country, including two in Queensland.
According to Labor’s new analysis, the output of large-scale and energy-intensive industry operations in Queensland would decrease significantly under the plan.
Labor estimated this would cost Queensland around $872 billion, or 5 percent of its gross state product by 2050.
“Their only plan that they’ve put forward is for nuclear reactors that'll cost $1,200 for every Australian more,” he told Sunrise on Jan. 7.
“Matt Canavan, a local Senator here in Queensland, has said, ‘Oh, that’s just a political fix, that’s not actually a real solution.’
“And he has belled the cat on [Opposition Leader] Peter Dutton’s lack of a plan.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he would fight back against Dutton’s “economic madness.”
“As a Queenslander, I won’t sit back and watch Peter Dutton push energy prices up and growth down right across the state,” he said.
“Peter Dutton is the biggest risk to household budgets and Australia’s economy because he wants to push up power prices, slow growth and come after wages and Medicare.”
Government’s Policies Are Reducing Energy Prices: PM
When asked whether he would be able to keep his 2022 election promise of lowering power prices by $275 for Australians by 2025, the prime minister said government policies were working.“What we’ve done is put in place a $300 reduction in everyone’s power bills. That’s had a real impact for people in reducing power bills,” he said.
“Here in Queensland, that was added to by $1,000 by the former Queensland government as well.”
At the same time, Albanese said his government had been addressing the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on energy prices in Australia.
“We put in place a cap on coal and gas prices in conjunction with the [former] Coalition government of Dominic Perrottet in New South Wales and the [former Labor] government of Annastacia Palaszczuk here in Queensland,” he said.
Labor Is Desperate: Shadow Treasurer
Meanwhile, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor refuted Labor’s analysis of Queensland’s output losses, saying it was nonsense.“Labor can make up all the nonsense they like. They’re desperate,” he said.
“This is a government that’s been on the back foot, that got things wrong, that is sending Australians on a pathway to poverty, not a pathway to prosperity. And so they’re in a state of desperation, saying these sorts of things.”
He noted that the government should be “frugal” under the current economy.
“Investment in good infrastructure projects is crucial … What we haven’t seen yet is the timeline of when the spending will occur,” he said.
“Labor cut funding to the Bruce Highway in previous budgets since they came to power, and we want to see when this money is going to be spent, whether it’s out in the never-never or it’s real.
“We haven’t seen that yet, and we’ll decide whether we support this particular proposal when we see those details.”
