00:00A prolonged cold spell through late autumn and early winter had people in southern states
00:08turning on their heaters, pushing demand for power to the highest ever levels for this
00:14time of year.
00:16Costs were high too.
00:18Wholesale electricity prices were 23% more than the same time last year.
00:25The weather conditions also meant less wind and rain in Victoria and Tasmania, and less
00:31wind and hydropower for the grid.
00:33Gas-fired power plants ramped up to meet demand, which costs more.
00:39In the budget we had our energy electricity bill rebate that will start kicking in to
00:43help people with some of those costs.
00:45And nuclear energy along with renewables, along with gas, is absolutely the answer for
00:52our country.
00:53The Coalition is pushing its plan for seven nuclear power plants.
00:58There's still no detail on costs or types, but Peter Dutton believes it can happen in
01:04a little over a decade.
01:05We can have nuclear into the system 2035 to 2037 in the first two sites and then we continue
01:13to roll it out from there.
01:15The nation's leading engineers have looked at small modular nuclear reactors and found
01:20the cost and operational performance hasn't yet been demonstrated.
01:25And that likely won't happen until the mid to late 2040s.
01:30It is incredibly risky to bank on small modular reactors.
01:34The best bet is to urgently invest and roll out the renewable technologies that we already
01:40know work.
01:41We need to do this transition now, we can't afford to wait for nuclear.
01:46The timelines and expected costs of the Coalition's nuclear plan don't stack up.
01:51Labor's plan requires a rapid acceleration of the rollout of renewables and plenty of
01:57gas as a backstop.
01:59With most of the nation's coal-fired power stations to shut down over the next decade,
02:04what happens in the next few years will be crucial.
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