June 26, 2024
Nuclear power stations will not provide a pathway into new employment for workers in the coal-fired power industry and Peter Dutton’s half backed nuclear fantasy is a distraction from securing new jobs in regions like the Hunter.
Two months ago, I stood with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at AGL’s Liddell site in Muswellbrook, one of two proposed nuclear sites in NSW. Together we announced a billion-dollar Solar SunShot program that will generate thousands of good, safe and reliable solar panel manufacturing jobs in the Hunter. AGL has already begun work converting the old site into an industrial hub which will be backed by the Federal Government.
We understand that securing job pathways for coal power workers is urgent, but Peter Dutton would rather fantasise about expensive nuclear reactors which are decades away and won’t deliver viable new industries for workers and communities in our regions.
Even if nuclear energy was a popular option, according to the CSIRO, the earliest a large-scale nuclear plant could commence operations is no sooner than 2040, despite Peter Dutton claiming that the first two would be delivered by 2037. Even if we took Peter Dutton’s claim at face value, a 2037 target seems unlikely given the raft of obstacles noted by experts and commentators. These include lack of support by site owners, state and federal nuclear bans and international experience on the length of time it takes to build nuclear power stations.
It’s also only two. A majority of states would still be without nuclear capability into the 2040s and beyond.
Meanwhile, Liddell Power Station in my electorate closed last year. In NSW even with the two-year extension recently secured, the Eraring power station at Lake Macquarie is due to close in 2027. Bayswater Power Station in the Hunter Valley and Vales Point Power Station in Lake Macquarie are also set to close in 2033. These workers can’t wait.
I was fortunate to tour the Latrobe Valley with MEU members last year and I know that Victorian coal power workers can’t wait until the 2040s for new job pathways. Their communities haven’t recovered from the closure of Hazelwood in 2017 and Yallourn Power Station is set to close in 2028 and Loy Yang A Power Station is set to close in 2035.
It’s a similar story facing power station workers and communities nation-wide.
On top of all of this – nuclear is just bloody expensive. It is the most expensive form of power generation. As Matt Kean, the former Liberal NSW Energy Minister who now heads the Federal Climate Change Authority said this week, he considered nuclear in NSW but “I didn’t want to bankrupt the state and I didn’t want to put those huge costs on to families.”
What really gets my goat though is that Peter Dutton was part of a government that oversaw the closure of a succession of coal-fired power stations without lifting a finger to help those workers or support their communities. They buried their heads in the sand on the energy transition and now they’re pretending they can simply move into nuclear jobs, when nothing about their plans stack up.
The Albanese Government is currently very close to passing the Net Zero Economy Authority through Federal Parliament which will help workers and communities affected by the energy transition. This will deliver a federal body tasked specifically with supporting power station workers into new jobs and driving investment and economic diversification in energy communities. We can’t wait until the 2040s, this work must start now.
We have a choice. Action and planning around the energy transition that will create viable new industries for workers in affected regions before the next two decades, or Dutton’s half-baked nuclear plan with no costings, no information on how much energy they will produce and no details on how they will build the bloody things.
Dan Repacholi is the Member of Parliament for the federal seat of Hunter