Face of Nation : Australia should consider nuclear power to help reduce emissions and support renewable sources, the nation’s longest-serving energy minister says. The committee is looking at whether nuclear power is a feasible, suitable and palatable solution for Australia’s future energy needs.
Ian Macfarlane, who now heads Queensland’s Resources Council, on Monday backed the idea of overturning Australia’s moratorium on nuclear to a parliamentary committee in Brisbane.
“The experience that Queensland has in mining is more than adequate to let uranium mining be done in a safe and environmentally sustainable way,” Mr Macfarlane said. “There is no scientific logic to not mining uranium in Queensland.”
The Palaszczuk government reintroduced a ban on extracting the mineral about four years ago, after the previous Liberal state government lifted it.
Mr Macfarlane said having a strong resources sector was important to the state government due to mining royalties, noting that any change to energy policy would be felt in the Queensland budget.
He assured the committee QRC supported lowering emissions and said nuclear could help do so without slowing economic growth. He also called for a coordinated approach to energy policy across the nation.
The bipartisan committee also heard from economist John Quiggin, who was adamant that a price on carbon was necessary if Australia chose to use nuclear. Overturning the moratorium on the power source would be “pointlessly divisive”, he argued.
Prof Quiggin – who left the Climate Change Authority in 2017 over frustrations at the “right-wing anti-science activists” in the then-Turnbull government – says a carbon price is the only way to make nuclear energy competitive against fossil fuels.
He’s sceptical about the economics behind nuclear power, particularly small modular reactors which are still being developed.
“Everything works on paper, there may be issues in reality,” Prof Quiggin said. Such technology was an “absolute minimum” of being 10 years away from use in Australia, he added.
Despite calling for the inquiry, the federal government insists there are no plans to change the moratorium on nuclear power but says it would be irresponsible not to consider emerging technology. Committee members also heard from six Australians appearing in private capacities.
