AUKUS deal paved the way for Coalition nuclear policy, Dutton reveals
Opposition leader Peter Dutton says he only launched a nuclear energy policy after Labor backed the AUKUS pact, which includes onshore nuclear submarine manufacturing.
The federal opposition leader Peter Dutton has revealed the former Coalition governments signing of the AUKUS security pact in 2021 and Australia's plans to acquire nuclear submarines provided the impetus for the Coalition to adopt its nuclear energy policy.
“I don’t believe it was possible [to pursue a nuclear energy policy] before the AUKUS deal. We sought bipartisan support from the Labor Party because that was part of our negotiations with the US. And I don’t think AUKUS would have been possible for the US to sign onto it without a bipartisan position,” Dutton told a Committee of Economic Development event in Sydney.
Given the AUKUS deal involved a discussion on where to bury nuclear waste within Australia after it begins to manufacture the submarines onshore in the 2040s, Labor effectively “gave up any pretence of being concerned about [nuclear] safety when they signed up to AUKUS,” Dutton added.
“If you have signed up under AUKUS to dispose of waste at end of life, you have made a decision that is safe to do so, and therefore, why not a domestic nuclear industry?”
