Centre for Independent Studies director of energy research Aidan Morrison has exposed the “key lies” the Albanese government ran with during the federal election campaign.
Speaking to Sky News Australia, Mr Morrison broke down Labor’s nuclear lies, which he claimed should have been exposed by the Coalition early on in the campaign.
The first lie identified by the energy expert was the government’s claim “experts” had rejected the Coalition’s nuclear plan in favour of renewables.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said throughout the campaign experts had warned former Liberal leader Peter Dutton's nuclear plan was too expensive and economically risky for Australia.
“Nuclear isn't the answer for Australia - it means higher bills, more risk of unreliability and exposure in an uncertain world,” he said.
“The experts have rejected Mr Dutton's risky ideas and on May 3, Australia can too.”
Mr Bowen's words came after 60 Australian economists from a range of Australian universities and other tertiary institutions signed an open letter opposing the Coalition's nuclear plan.
Mr Morrison suggested many experts would simply “repeat back” the government’s plans rather than engaging in criticism or comparing it with alternative policies.
“This idea the experts are all behind them is just not the case and so I think that really should have been called out very early,” he told Sky News' Peta Credlin.
“It should have been absolutely front of the lips of every Coalition candidate to say that, no, the experts don't back the plan, they repeat back the plans and that's a very, very important distinction.”
Moving to another of Labor's "lies", Mr Morrison claimed the government campaigned from start to finish by pushing the Smart Energy Council's $600 billion nuclear figure, which “came from nowhere”.
He highlighted the figure was five times greater than costings from the CSIRO and claimed it was also double the highest cost of a nuclear project built in the United Kingdom.
Mr Morrison also singled out Simon Holmes à Court, a senior advisor to the Smart Energy Council, for being “absolutely transparently incorrect” when producing the $600 billion nuclear figure.
Moving to what he said was the third lie, Mr Morrison rubbished Labor’s claim nuclear would only deliver output equivalent to four per cent of the nation’s grid.
“That relies on a transparent nonsense,” he said.
“The idea that rooftop solar, which only operates at about 15 per cent of its capacity, provides the same amount of energy as a nuclear plant, which operates at over 90 per cent, and that even storage, which provides no energy at all, also provides the same amount of energy as a nuclear power plant which operates at 90 per cent of the output (is wrong).
“So that was transparent nonsense.”
He then exposed Labor’s fourth lie: that implementing nuclear power would force households to leave their solar panels “switched off”.
“Now this was only possible to be run because basically the market operator (AEMO) quashed a story about how they need to turn off everyone's solar panels this year,” he said.
“Actually, in the third quarter of 2025 we're going to have to start switching off solar panels because of the glut of new solar that's being built.
“It's not actually nuclear that's solar's worst enemy, it's more solar because it produces it at exactly the same time.”
Mr Morrison added Mr Bowen campaigned “extremely heavily” on reports from the Smart Energy Council, which analysed the impact Mr Dutton’s nuclear plan would have on the millions of Australian solar households.
The fifth lie Mr Morrison focused on arose from what he claimed was a misleading report produced by the Climate Change Authority.
The government agency modelled the potential impacts of the Coalition's promise to build seven nuclear power plants by 2050 and concluded it would result in an additional 2 billion tonnes of emissions.
Mr Morrison argued the finding was irrelevant as it was based on the assumption Labor would achieve its “absolutely crazy“ goal of 82 per cent renewable supply by 2030 - which would also see Australia achieve a 43 per cent reduction in emissions by the same year.
“Of course, nobody serious who's not basically part of the Renewables Cheer Squad seriously believe that target's approachable,” he said.
“So again, nothing to stand on there. The baseline should have been challenged, and sadly, it just wasn't.”
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