Two Labor-aligned unions accused of ‘backflipping’ on their ‘long held’ support for nuclear energy after Coalition policy announcement
Opposition leader Peter Dutton revealed the sites in a major announcement on June 19, with Mr Dutton pitching the plan as a policy that could “underpin a century of economic growth” while also providing jobs for the communities where the plants would be located. The AWU hit out at the Coalition’s plans in a social media message posted just hours after the announcement, describing it as a “half-baked fantasy” that will “slam the brakes on our energy transition and put our industries in peril”.
“This proposal has no interest in solving real challenges faced by industry and workers today. Energy is not a political football: it’s our livelihoods. We deserve so much better.” The AWU national secretary went on to say that Australia “cannot sustain, let alone grow, its heavy industry sector on renewables alone".
“If we don’t allow ourselves to explore the option, we’ll be letting hysterical scaremongers triumph over the environment and our economy”. “These cannot be replaced by small-scale renewables in the existing grid, and it is unlikely to be replaced in great part by large-scale renewables and/or hydro,” the AWU report states.
“About 1600 jobs in the Latrobe Valley would be required for construction over a decade. The construction jobs would add an estimated $240m per year to the region in income.”, telling the committee that unless carbon capture and storage became viable, the “only cost-effective and viable source of power would be nuclear.”