Labor frontbencher Jason Clare has jumped on reports that nuclear energy could send electricity bills soaring by up to $1000 a year as the government defends using memes with three-eyed koalas to attack the Liberal’s new policy.
Liberal leader Peter Dutton announced this week he wants Australia to go nuclear, with a wishlist of up to seven nuclear reactors dotted all over the countryside.
Speaking on Sunrise, the Education Minister was put under the pump over “Blinky Bill-Gate”, the use of memes featuring The Simpsons and three-eyed koalas and fish.
“Are you trying to scare the electorate? And if so, what use is it to scare us?” host Monique Wright asked.
“This is serious,” Mr Clare replied.
“The problem is this is not a serious policy. You asked about cost. There’s a report out today that says if Peter Dutton does this, electricity prices for everyone will go up by about $1000 a year.”
Mr Dutton has pledged that nuclear power will ultimately bring the price of electricity down.
“I’m not too worried about the billionaires who want to make more money off Australian taxpayers,” he said. “I want to bring Australian power prices down.”
The $1000 claim was first reported in The Guardian, citing Tristan Edis, a director with the firm Green Energy Markets, who noted the wholesale electricity price was set by the most expensive fuel being used at any given time.
He said that if the Coalition government put a hold on investment in solar and wind farms and boosted gas power to replace coal and always setting the price, “you’re talking about an increase of $500 to potentially even $1000 per annum for a household power bill”.
“This is economic insanity,” Mr Clare said.
“Everybody looking at their bill on the fridge today needs to know that if you vote for Peter Dutton, your bills will go up, not down. They’ll go up by about $1000 a year. Sussan, why would you pick the most expensive form of energy here? We want bills to go down, not up. And you’re picking a policy here that would mean potential blackouts, job losses and bills going up, not down.”
But Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said that it was time for Labor to “call out these ridiculous, childish memes that we’ve seen, including from a Labor Premier”.
“I’m not going to take lectures from the Liberal Party who told us at the last election that electric cars were going to ‘end the weekend’,” Mr Clare said.
“More seriously here, if you’re going to release a policy, the Australian people deserve to know how much it will cost, how much to build and how much their bills are going to go up. We got all the details that you would see in a fortune cookie this week and Australians deserve to know the truth here. Otherwise, why would you trust Peter Dutton?”
Labor promised before the last election that annual power bills would fall $275 by 2025. Instead, bills went up.
Speaking on the ABC, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said critics should “lighten up” over memes shared by several Labor MPs mocking nuclear power.
“For goodness’ sake,” he said.
“We’re not going to take lectures from a mob who said that an Advisory Committee for Indigenous Australians on matters that affected them would lead to everyone losing their house and their private property.
“There’s a reason why the Coalition are saying that they’re going to nationalise that part of the energy sector, unusually for a Liberal Party, and that’s because no bank, no financier, will touch it with a barge pole because it doesn’t stack up. That’s why.
“They’re hiding what the costs will be of this nuclear fantasy.”