- At least two Labor MPs want the nuclear ban lifted
- But they do not support Peter Dutton’s plan
At least two Labor MPs believe the Commonwealth’s legislative ban on nuclear power stations should be lifted, telling Daily Mail Australia the law is ‘stupid, unnecessary and outdated’.
The MPs indicated that they would even be willing to take the floor and support a coalition initiative to lift the ban if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese guaranteed that they would not risk sanctions if they broke party rules.
‘If it’s good for her [WA Labor senator Fatima Payman] ‘If we were to do that, why wouldn’t it be okay for the rest of us to exercise our conscience on other issues as well?’ one of the MPs told Daily Mail Australia.
The reference is to Senator Payman who crossed the floor last night to side with the Greens in recognizing Palestine as a state. The Prime Minister has decided not to sanction his WA senator.
But they insist they do not support Peter Dutton’s policy to build state-funded nuclear reactors.
‘We should not be afraid to lift the nuclear weapons ban. If you do, it will become clear why [Peter] Dutton’s policy is not financially feasible,” said an MP.
Their argument is that lifting the ban would give companies the right to invest commercially in nuclear energy, “but they will never do that,” the MPs say, “because the business case for doing so does not exist.”
Nuclear power was banned at Commonwealth level in 1998 as part of a trade deal between then-coalition government John Howard.
The calls within Labor to lift the ban on nuclear power come in the wake of a number of Labor MPs tweeting childhood photos of three-eyed fish and koalas.
Labor MPs would consider speaking out on the issue if Anthony Albanese guaranteed they would not face censorship
Needing the support of the Greens and Australian Democrats to make changes to laws affecting the existing Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, the Howard government agreed to a blanket ban on any more nuclear reactors in the whole country.
The ban is now contained in section 140A(1)(b) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. ‘The Minister must not approve an act consisting of or relating to the construction or operation of: (b) a nuclear power station .’
The law could be changed simply by amending Part B of the bill, but that would require support from both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Lucas Heights is a scientific research reactor, not a nuclear reactor. Australia is one of the few wealthy developed countries that does not embrace nuclear energy.
The Howard government’s decision to trade away any potential nuclear power future for Australia came in the wake of France’s nuclear tests in the Pacific, which saw strong opposition to nuclear power emerge in Australia.
Australia’s national nuclear ban is the result of horse-trading between the Howard government and Bob Brown’s Greens in 1998
While Labor MPs are adamant that lifting the ban two and a half decades later would prove their case against Dutton’s policies, “including that we are the party of the free market”, they do not want to be mentioned as people who want that. do this because they believe that if they did, there would be reprisals.
The calls within Labor to lift the ban on nuclear power come in the wake of a number of Labor MPs tweeting youth images of three-eyed fish and koalas affected by nuclear waste.
“We have completely opposed Dutton’s policies and have even demonized the concept of nuclear power,” says one, adding that in Australia you can oppose nuclear power on economic grounds without giving in to the hysteria surrounding the environmental risks associated with it to write.
“Advocating the lifting of the ban would be political suicide, so no thank you,” was the response of one MP when asked if they would put their name to the story.