Coalition senator says nuclear ‘not going to cut it’ in video

Nationals senator Matt Canavan says the Coalition is “latching onto” nuclear energy “because it fixes a political issue for us” in an unearthed video.

The Coalition has repeatedly promised its plan to include atomic power to Australia’s energy grid would lower electricity bills despite it being decades away and modelling showing the opposite.

But in his remarks, made to a conservative think tank in August, Senator Canavan conceded “it ain’t the cheapest form of power”.

“Nuclear is not going to cut it,” he said.

“I fully support getting rid of the ban (on nuclear), we’ve got a bill in the Senate to get rid of it.

“We should build some nuclear power stations. They’ll help, they’ll help our system.

“But we’re latching on to it as a silver bullet, as a panacea, because it fixes a political issue for us, that it’s low emission and it’s reliable. But it ain’t the cheapest form of power.”

The Coalition last week formally unveiled costings for its plan for a net-zero nuclear-powered grid by 2050, attaching a $331bn price tag to the energy overhaul.

It claimed the plan was more than $260bn cheaper than the Albanese government’s renewable pathway to net zero.

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But much of the nuclear costings was based on the assumption that Australia’s energy demand would be far less than Labor has forecast.

Reacting to the video, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said he did not often agree with Senator Canavan.

“I don’t agree with much Matt Canavan says,” Mr Bowen said on Friday.

“But I do acknowledge at least he’s honest on this occasion.

“Canavan admits the Coalition is willing to impose higher costs on Australians with the most expensive form of energy just to ‘fix a political problem’ for Peter Dutton’s divided party room.”

Earlier on Friday, Nationals MP Keith Pitt announced he was leaving politics because of the Coalition’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.

The former Morrison government minister told The Australian that his party was abandoning the coal industry under David Littleproud because the Nationals leader would not “stand up” to the Liberal Party.

“And to do that, you’ve got to separate from your brothers and sisters in the Liberal Party because they have, on occasions, different views to us,’’ he said, as cited by the paper.