“Economic insanity:” Treasurer slams Peter Dutton’s nuclear power plan

Coalition plans to build seven nuclear power plants are “economic insanity”, the treasurer says, ahead of a speech by the opposition leader unveiling details behind the policy.

The federal opposition has outlined plans to build seven nuclear reactors across five states, should they win the next election, with the first to be built by 2035 to 2037 at the earliest.

The proposed reactors would be built in areas with existing coal-fired power stations, including the Hunter Valley and Lithgow in NSW, Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, Collie in Western Australia and Port Augusta in South Australia.

While Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is set to lay out more information about the proposal in a major speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia on Monday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the plan would not solve energy issues.

“Peter Dutton’s nuclear fantasy is economic insanity. It costs more, it will push power prices up, it will take longer,” he told Sky News on Sunday.

“He needs to come clean tomorrow in this speech: what will it cost, what will it mean for power bills, how will he pay for it, and what will Australia do for the decades it will take to build these reactors.”

Opposition environment spokesman Jonno Duniam said it was unlikely Mr Dutton would lay out the costs of the nuclear plan in the speech.

He accused the government of running a scare campaign about the use of nuclear power.

“We’ll release the costings well and truly before the election, and Australians deserve to know, and we will have that data out there,” he told Sky News.

“We’ll continue to mount the case for having this as a choice in the energy mix at the right time … we won’t be goaded into (releasing costings) on the government’s timing.”

The speech comes as a report released on Friday showed a typical household electricity bill could rise by $665 a year on average, if nuclear power was added to the energy grid.

Dr Chalmers said the lack of detail surrounding the policy was concerning,

(Peter Dutton) is a big risk to energy and to power prices in this country. The fact that he’s not prepared to release those details, I think, should ring alarm bells for every Australian,” he said.