The Coalition’s enthusiasm for pursuing nuclear power solutions for Australia apparently dropped off quite rapidly after the departure of the former Prime Minister; although we have only started to hear about it now. Despite no associated media statement being released at the time, Chris Hammer reports in The Age today that the decision to junk the Coalition’s approach to nuclear power was made at a shadow cabinet meeting in December last year. Shadow Environment spokesperson Greg Hunt now suggests that there is “zero chance” of a nuclear power industry emerging in Australia within the next 40 years. Needless to say, it is very interesting that an election result apparently has the capacity to change a partyroom’s mind on a policy so profoundly. Particularly one which the election was not widely perceived to be a referendum on.
Unfortunately for the Opposition, its new “stance” on nuclear power appears riddled with ambiguity and is ripe for attack from the government. Consider this thoroughly non-sensical sentence attributed to a spokesperson for Doctor Nelson, attempting to summarise the Coalition’s revised approach to nuclear power issues:
Yesterday a spokesman for Dr Nelson said: “Coalition policy is to investigate the possibility of nuclear energy, but it is not part of our policy. If it were to occur, it would only occur in a bipartisan way.”
A translation would seem to be required. The message from the Coalition seems to be that they are interested in investigating the possibility of nuclear energy, but no, of course they would never actually pursue the development of a nuclear power industry in this country. No, sir. They are just interested in investigating it. Unless of course, the Rudd Government decides to embrace nuclear power, in which case they would be happy to hop on board for the ride, as they have done on industrial relations, the Kyoto Protocol, apologising to the stolen generations, and so on, over the course of the last couple of months.
The Nelson Opposition has once again been caught junking a seemingly unpopular policy, without actually thinking too much about what its new approach or direction in that area is going to be. This latest sabotage of the Howard team platform adds further credence to the snowballing public perception that the Coalition has not a clue what it stands for anymore, now that its former leadership team are mostly now on the backbenches or else out of parliament. It needs some direction and fast, before the Rudd Government starts feeling like the comfy old pair of slippers that the Howard Government became for so many ordinary voters out there.
