The Victorian opposition chief says he mentioned the language he would use to distance the state social gathering from the federal Coalition’s marketing campaign to construct a nuclear reactor within the Latrobe Valley, telling Peter Dutton “it’s your campaign”.
The Loy Yang coal-fired energy station within the Latrobe Valley east of Melbourne is one in all seven proposed websites for the federal Coalition’s proposal to construct nuclear reactors, the centrepiece vitality coverage the federal Liberal chief will probably be taking to the three Might ballot.
However in his first interview with Guardian Australia since turning into the state Liberal chief in December, Brad Battin was clear to separate his crew from the proposal, saying: “Our focus is gas, let the feds get on with what they’ve got to get on with.”
He confirmed he had not spoken to anybody within the federal Coalition about its two-and-a-half-year session plan for every proposed nuclear website, with the difficulty “barely raised” in any respect on the marketing campaign path.
Nonetheless, Battin stated a dialog had taken place with Dutton and his workplace about how he would deal with questions on the coverage.
“I’ve had the conversation with Dutton and his office around what my language is going to be, which is basically saying, ‘We’re happy to have a conversation at the right time. But for us, it’s your campaign at the moment. Our priority, our focus, is on gas,’” he stated.
Battin stated the federal Coalition would wish state parliament to overturn Victoria’s Nuclear Actions (Prohibitions) Act of 1983, which bans the development and operation of nuclear amenities within the state. Requested if he could be pleased with that legislation being overturned, he stated: “I’ll let you know on 4 May.”
With out the assist of state parliament, Battin stated a Dutton authorities wouldface a “difficult process” underneath part 109 of the structure, which permits federal legislation to override state legislation within the case of battle.
At his marketing campaign launch on Sunday, Dutton vowed that Australia would change into a “nuclear-powered nation” underneath the Coalition if elected. He stated nuclear vitality would cut back the necessity for “sprawling solar and windfarms or laying down 28,000km of transmission lines”.
Battin, nonetheless, stated most Victorians wished cheaper vitality however “don’t know what the answer to that is yet”.
He stated that as present fuel fields in Victoria’s Gippsland and Otway basins proceed to deplete, the state ought to prioritise increasing onshore fuel exploration as an alternative.
The feedback mark a shift in tone for Battin, who has spent months sticking to a rigorously worded place that the Victorian Coalition was open to an “adult conversation” concerning the coverage. He has additionally repeatedly refused to offer a private view on nuclear vitality.
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It stands in distinction to the stance taken by the Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, who dominated out repealing his state’s nuclear ban throughout final 12 months’s election.
The secretary of the Victorian Trades Corridor Council, Luke Hilakari, stated Battin was “smartly keeping a distance” from the federal Coalition’s coverage, saying it “might appeal to other places, but not here in Victoria”.
Victoria has a protracted historical past of opposition to nuclear vitality – together with a interval within the Nineteen Eighties when quantity plates carried the slogan “Vic – Nuclear Free State”.
Battin has solely appeared alongside Dutton as soon as because the federal marketing campaign started, at a photograph alternative at a Caulfield petrol station.
He informed Guardian Australia that whereas each he and Dutton had been former cops, “we’ve also got a lot of differences”.
“I’ve grown up differently to Peter did,” he stated. “I had challenges that Peter may not have had and I think that changes who you are.”
