Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud on Afternoon Briefing
GREG JENNETT
Nationals Leader David Littleproud is doing much the same thing. He's in Lithgow today, the Central West town in New South Wales, with a coal-fired power plant that's been slated for them, too, under Coalition policy. David Littleproud joins us now from Lithgow. Welcome back to the program, David.
Look, I do want to get to nuclear. That's pretty much what we're here to talk about. But on the way through, is the RBA smashing the economy with higher interest rates, in your view?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
No. Well, look, the RBA only acts out of what they actually determine, monetary policy, as a result of the government's fiscal policy.
Elementary economics will tell you that they actually determine where interest rates are determined by how the more general economy's heading, but then also where government is spending. And they've made it very clear that government spending, both of state and federal, have had an impact on the decisions that they've made and where they've kept interest rates. And if you look at other parts of the world, this is where Australia is lagging. You see interest rates already on the decline in Canada, United States, New Zealand, UK. But in Australia, the RBA is threatening to push them up because discretionary spending stopped.
But your fixed spending continues to stay up, which is keeping inflation sticky. And the reality is, the RBA is having to act for things like the government who are just papering over the cracks, actually spending more of your money around your electricity bill. They've spent six and a half billion dollars in trying to get a $275 promise in your reduction of electricity bills, only to see your electricity bill go up by $700.
So this government isn't addressing the fundamentals and that flows into your food and that keeps your mortgage price higher. And that's because the RBA reacts to what the government's actions are.
And if the Prime Minister doesn't want to acknowledge that, if he wants to pass blame, then that just shows he's not prepared to lead this nation and fix the fundamentals to take pressure off interest rates and cost of living.
GREG JENNETT
All right, well, there is another side to that conversation. That's the strength of the economy. We might hold further questions on that until we get a really good readout on Wednesday about just how strong or weak it is. So let's move on to nuclear.
You are there in Lithgow addressing the Mount Piper workers, I suppose, and community that's around the coal-fired generator site while we all await, David Littleproud, costings details from the Coalition.
You said you were quoted earlier today, the costings were, quote, basically ready to go now, but you were waiting for social licence from those communities. Are you claiming that that social licence has been issued by the community there in Lithgow, Mount Piper?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Well, on all seven locations, the majority of people living in these locations that we're proposing for unique power plants to take over from transition from coal-fired power stations support this proposal because they can see that this protects their jobs. Nearly 880 percent of those that work in a coal-fired power station can transition across.
They have energy literacy. They understand that this will give baseload power, but also cheaper power over the long term.
GREG JENNETT
So just explain to me, David, how you measure that, then, because you're asserting that the majority have. Is it, as I understand it, by way of Freshwater Strategy polling, that is opinion polling, that merely had to pass a threshold of, what, 50.1%? Is that it?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Well, it already had well above that, even in all those communities before we announced them. But then what we wanted to do, Greg, was to actually engage with the community, not politicians, but actually experts. We've actually had experts in the nuclear field out here in Lithgow and other communities explaining what this will look like and what that transition will look like. We haven't sent politicians in. We want to take the politics out of this and get the facts in.
And what we've seen subsequent to that is there's been a strengthening in support because they've understood the proposal and there'll be more education they'll continue to need. There'll be more engagement from myself and Peter Dutton as well. And we intend to do that. But we wanted to take the politics out of it. The first step, instead of this senseless scare campaign that Labor's gone off with three eyed fish, what people want is leadership.
I'm in the main street of Lithgow. There are probably more than 20 shops that are empty in the main street. These people are looking for a future. They're not afraid of it. They're going to back themselves to do this better than anyone else in the world of it, because they see the opportunity that comes with it.
And so we need leadership. And the first thing I did when I became Leader was write to the Prime Minister and say, let's have a National Energy Summit. Let's put everything on the table, industry, unions, Premiers, let's work out what our energy mix should be. We shouldn't have an all- renewables approach. But he ignored that.
Instead, he's gone for a scare campaign. Instead of educating and bringing the Australian people with them, that's the journey that we're on. We've gained that social licence and we'll continue to need to work on that and then we'll bring out the costings as well as what our total energy mix will look like as a nation's grid.
GREG JENNETT
And are the questions and some of the assumptions made in the opinion polling? This is the Freshwater Strategy polling.
Are they publicly available? Do we know, for instance, whether you are asking questions about a full-scale, large-scale reactor or a small modular reactor in places like Lithgow?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Yeah, we've made it very clear because we said that it won't be just small scale modular nuclear reactors. We've asked them, are they comfortable with a nuclear reactor in their community and powering the jobs that are there in the existing coal fired power stations? We've been very upfront.
We've also been very upfront about safety. I mean, much of the perception is that this is unsafe. We're about to put our submariners right next to a nuclear reactor in submarines. I don't think any government would do that to its submariners unless they felt this technology was safe. We are not using 1950s Russian technology, we are not putting it in place where a tsunami can cause significant damage.
We are putting it with the best geo-technical science in the world and we'll be able to back ourselves to give us that zero emissions, baseload power that'll keep the lights on, but keep manufacturing going in this country, because no country of the scale, of the industrial scale of Australia has gone on all renewables approach. It simply can't. You need baseload power and in the short term, to get to that, we're also going to have to increase gas and we'll be very upfront and clear with that about the amount of gas that we'll bring on while this transition from coal to nuclear takes place. And we'll still have renewables. But I believe the best place for renewables is on an environment it can't destroy, on rooftops.
GREG JENNETT
So you're saying you've got your social licence, you are basically effectively ready to go, your words on the costings. So when?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Well, we'll announce this in the very near future when we're ready. And obviously we're going to be upfront with the Australian people well before the election.
We want nothing to hide. What you see is what you get. This is a big legacy piece for the Australian people and for these communities. We had to get the respect and give them the respect that they deserve in working through the initial phase, and then the next phase will be shown to the Australian people that we will have an energy mix that should give them comfort and know that we can keep manufacturing going in this country because we just can't keep manufacturing going with subsidies because ultimately your money runs out. So you've got to fix the fundamentals, which is baseload power and proper industrial relations policy.
And so we'll have this, we'll be very upfront with the Australian people about those costings and our total energy mix from now right through to 2050.
GREG JENNETT
All right. Well, we'll eagerly await those details when they come. David Littleproud, many more questions, I promise, but I'll save them for when we've got some policy to sink our teeth into. Thank you.
