Critics of Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party’s nuclear policy have called it an attempt to slow-walk renewable adoption and protect vested fossil fuel interests, who regularly donate to the opposition leader and his party.

Australia legislated a country-wide ban on nuclear power in 1998 under the Howard government, but Dutton has signalled that his party will take a nuclear-first policy into the next federal election.

Economists, renewable energy advocates and politicians across the aisle have called out the policy as both unviable and an excuse to protect fossil fuel consumption.

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‘Distraction and delay’

Professor John Quiggin, from the University of Queensland’s School of Economics, said it is clear the policy has been adopted as opposition to renewable energy, instead of because of sound economic factors.

“If they continue talking about small modular reactors, you can say it’s just window dressing because there are none and there aren’t going to be any anytime soon,” he said.

“Nothing has improved for nuclear since the Labor government was elected, let alone since (the Liberal Party) were first elected in 2013.”

Only China and Russia have successfully built small modular reactors, a type of reactor built in a factory and shipped to the site of the power plant, and attempts to commodify and mass produce SMRs have so far failed.

A report into the viability of nuclear energy late last year found that adoption would be too slow and expensive in Australia, with the average nuclear power station taking over nine years to build, compared to between one and three years for major wind or solar projects.

Steve Blume, a renewable energy advocate and chair of Smart Voting, said Dutton and the Liberal Party are supporting nuclear energy to slow the adoption of wind, solar and other renewable sources.

“It’s bizarre that they are proposing nuclear, it’s the slowest to deploy and highest cost technology in the world,” he said.

“It’s all a distraction and a delay.”

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Financial support

Dutton has voted consistently against adopting net-zero emission targets, serious climate action and acknowledging climate change throughout his time in Parliament.

In the lead-up to the 2022 federal election, fossil fuel companies donated $2 million to major parties.

Fossil fuel giants Santos, Woodside and Whitehaven Coal donated $193,950 to the Liberal Party in the 2022-23 financial year, while paying just $30 in federal income tax during the same period.

Bluescope Steel, the Minerals Council of Australia and the GFG Alliance are also regular donors to the Liberal Party, according to the Australian Electoral Commission’s transparency register.

Dutton made a stunning cross-country trip at the end of last week – on the eve of the Dunkley byelection – to appear at mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s 70th birthday party.

Rinehart, Australia’s wealthiest woman, has extensive holdings in both fossil fuel extraction and uranium prospecting through her company Hancock Prospecting.

The company supplied Dutton with a return flight from Perth to the Pilbara in August 2022 and a return trip to Sydney to attend the Bali Bombing Memorial in November 2022, according to Dutton’s most recent statement of registrable interests.

The statement does not cover late 2023 and 2024.

Hancock Prospecting also funnelled $150,000 into the Liberal Party coffers through a donation from the ‘Sydney Mining Club’.

Rinehart used a rare public speech in August last year to advocate for nuclear energy to be included in Australia’s energy mix, while hailing “king coal” and calling for more tax breaks for fossil fuel projects.

Members of Dutton’s shadow ministry, and his potential deputy premier, appeared at an anti-renewable energy rally earlier this year in Canberra.