6 out of 8 Coalition state leaders don't support nuclear

From the start, the cracks in the federal Coalition's nuclear pipe dream were evident: wildly unrealistic construction timelines, cost blowouts that would crank up power bills, and no plan for insuring from accidents or storing long lived radioactive waste — to name just a few.

Now there are cracks in the Coalition’s ranks. 6 out of 8 state Coalition leaders do not support Peter Dutton’s nuclear fantasy. And a new advocacy group — Liberals Against Nuclear — has launched a TV and print publicity campaign declaring that the reactor plan is ‘too toxic to take to the next election’ and urging the Coalition to dump nuclear.¹

The very next day, new polling showed national opposition to nuclear has gone up by three percentage points and no electorate in the country recorded a majority in support of nuclear.²

State or territory Coalition leaders must hear that our future is renewable, not radioactive. Nuclear is bad for people and places and they need to represent us, not the political interests of their federal counterparts.

It’s clear that Peter Dutton would not have the support of state party leaders or the people to pursue a nuclear path for Australia. If elected he would have no mandate to sign contracts or pour concrete.

It's also revealing that there was barely a mention of nuclear in Peter Dutton's budget reply. The Coalition's nuclear push remains both a cover for extending and growing fossil fuels and a real radioactive threat — bad policies that would increase delay, uncertainty, prices and pollution.

Chasing the atom delays and distracts from the real progress we've made to decarbonise our country — and it would have disastrous impacts on our renewable pathway.

Money, resources, airtime and action would be diverted away from effective climate and energy solutions and into a nuclear dead end.

We need to urgently meet the challenges of a changing climate and secure renewable energy for Australia this decade. Wind, solar and hydro are on track to power 80% of our country in just five years — and we're more than halfway there today!

Let's not stop a good thing for a toxic distraction. Let's not accept this level of irresponsibility from any serious political party in Australia.

Dave Sweeney
Nuclear Free Campaigner

¹ The Canberra Times. Parts of two election ads launched by the Liberals Against Nuclear campaign on March 18, 2025 encouraging the Coalition to ditch its nuclear policy. 18 March 2025.

² DemosAU. Australians yet to be convinced on nuclear, polling shows. 19 March 2025.