Coalition modelling for its nuclear proposals suggest they would be $263 billion cheaper than those planned by the government

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Opposition leader Peter Dutton will finally put a price tag on the coalition’s nuclear ambitions shortly, and he’s expected to detail modelling that shows it will be 263-billion-dollars cheaper than Labor’s plans. The figured from Frontier Economics reveal that by 2050, the coalition’s plan would see 38 percent of power coming from nuclear.

Transcript

00:00The opposition has said that they will build seven taxpayer-owned nuclear power plants

00:08across the country, mostly in regional areas, two in regional Queensland, two in regional

00:13New South Wales, for example.

00:15And they have released some early details of their modelling, which will be released

00:19in full today.

00:21The ABC has now been given a pretty broad statement from Peter Dutton's office, which

00:26explains some of their thinking.

00:28The key point being that Frontier Economics, which the Coalition has got to do their modelling,

00:34is arguing that it would be $263 billion cheaper to go with the Coalition's energy make-up

00:42than it would be if we were to go down Labor's mostly renewables route.

00:49So that's $331 billion for the Coalition's plan and $594 billion for Labor's plan.

00:57Some of the key assumptions that this modelling is making is that by 2050, renewables will

01:02make up 54% of the energy make-up in Australia, with nuclear 38%, and then some other power

01:09sources, gas included, for that small 8% left.

01:13There is also a note that there would be 14 gigawatts of power from nuclear energy.

01:19Now that is not very much compared with what the Australian energy market operator thinks

01:24that we will need by 2050, but the Coalition's modelling is saying that they think we won't

01:30have as much or as many electric vehicles as the energy market operator assumes and

01:36therefore we won't have as much need for power.

01:40So there are a lot of assumptions being made and a lot of modelling details that are being

01:46tested or will be tested once the full details come out.

01:49We've heard from the Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, who says that this is just a fantasy

01:56plan.

01:57He was on earlier this morning saying that he thinks that the Coalition has been a bit

02:02tricky with some of its numbers.

02:04Have a listen.

02:05What the Coalition is asking the Australian people to believe is this, that they can introduce

02:09the most expensive form of energy and it will end up being cheaper.

02:13I mean, it won't pass the pub test, it won't pass the sniff test, because it is just a

02:17fantasy.

02:19Chris Bowen, the Energy Minister there.

02:22We know as well, earlier this week we saw a report from the CSIRO which modelled nuclear

02:28energy and the Coalition's plan to cost twice as much as Labor's plan.

02:33So that's obviously starkly different to what the Coalition's modelling is claiming and

02:37so there will be a lot of questions no doubt once Peter Dutton reveals more details about

02:43his plan today.

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