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MICHELLE STANLEY, HOST: Steve in Wembley says ‘nuclear started as a bad idea and has now morphed into pig-headed stupidity. Let it go Mr. Dutton’. Do you agree with Steve, I wonder?

Patrick Gorman is the Labor Member for Perth and the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, good morning. Collie doesn’t appear to be included in this plan, Patrick Gorman, any thoughts on why that might be?

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Michelle, I think it’s just deeply disrespectful to the people of Collie who have been going through a transition out of coal fired power into renewable energies and new industry. To be told earlier this year in May they were going to get a nuclear power plant, to find out in December that Mr. Dutton didn’t even include Collie in his modelling or costings. Just shows how much of an afterthought Western Australia is in this plan. That might, however, be a good thing for us in the West, because this is not going to get built without huge amounts of increases to power bills, some $1,200 a year, every year. And if it’s not –

STANLEY: Where do you get that figure from?

GORMAN: We’ve looked at what are going to be the likely costs. I do dispute Mr. Dutton’s figure. Our calculations are it’s about $600 billion to get a nuclear industry up and running in Australia, if you look at the GenCost report that the Australian Energy Market Operator put out showing what the costs are to get nuclear energy into the grid. It shows that it will just mean higher power bills, or if it doesn’t go on people’s power bills we just end up racking up billions of debt. And I think, given where Australia sits today, $331 billion of additional debt – and it’ll be more than that because that figure doesn’t even include Western Australia – it’s just such an irresponsible and reckless plan.

STANLEY: The Opposition says that Labor’s plan is actually $230 billion more expensive.

GORMAN: I think for your listeners and the Australian people at large, we’re going to hear a lot of figures bounced around over the next few days. I take our figures from the Australian Energy Market Operator, which says the costs of the transition to renewable energy is $122 billion between now and 2050, and that it is the cheapest form of energy. And I think people know that renewables is the cheapest form of energy. That’s why we’ve got some of the highest solar penetration anywhere in the country, right here in WA. People know that it’s more affordable because it’s simple economics that renewable, you don’t have to have constant feedstock. It’s the same reason –

STANLEY: There are complications and challenges with renewables. Mark in Narrogin asks ‘how you get power at night with no solar, no wind, what’s your plan for the next 20 or 30 years?’ But won’t this issue be determined by the private sector, and who’s willing to invest in nuclear versus renewables?

GORMAN: That’s the thing we’re already seeing companies, international investment in Western Australia for renewables. The reason that the Coalition are saying they’ll have to have the taxpayer underwrite their plan is because no one is coming with a proposal for privately funded nuclear reactors and waste storage. If you go down to Collie, and I’ve been and visited, you’ve got major international energy companies like Neoen, who are actually building one of the batteries that will go into the grid early next year to start providing storage and renewable energy for Western Australians. It’s already happening, and it’s happening in partnership with the market. And when we can do something that is cheaper – and it is significantly cheaper – it brings all of those benefits of distributed jobs. Even the Bunbury offshore wind zone alone, that’s 7000 jobs in construction, predominantly based in and around Bunbury. That’s great news. They’re the opportunities we should be grabbing, and they’re here right now. Under the Coalition’s nuclear plan WA is at the back of the queue, so far back in the queue that it’s not even included in the costings or modelling. So you’re going to see no investment in Collie or anywhere in WA under the Coalition plan. Under what we are already doing, you’re seeing major investments in Western Australia and the jobs that come.

STANLEY: Patrick Gorman, thank you for your time. He’s the Labor Member for Perth and the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, wondering where Collie has gone in the Coalition’s or the Opposition’s costings.