Federal election 2025: Labor runs costings ruler over Coalition’s nuclear plan

Labor has moved to discredit Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan, claiming taxpayers would each be up for nearly $90,000 in interest repayments by 2050 if it goes ahead.

Labor costings released by Treasurer Jim Chalmers claim interest costs would be $609 billion to 2050 — on top of an expected $600b to build seven reactors across Australia.

“Servicing this much larger Liberal debt will cost Australians billions of dollars,” Dr Chalmers said.

“Peter Dutton’s nuclear insanity is the biggest risk to household budgets and the biggest risk to the Commonwealth budget.”

The Coalition in 2024 unveiled seven sites in five states for nuclear power plants, if elected, to be government-owned and on retiring or retired coal sites.

The sites are Torong and Callide in Queensland, Liddell in NSW, Mount Piper in NSW, Port Augusta in SA, Loy Yang in Victoria and Muja in WA.

Mr Dutton initially said the nuclear plants would be operational by about 2037, but further details of the proposal have been scant since then.

To date, he has visited the Muja site in the regional town on Collie just once since announcing the proposal and that visit was kept secret from the media.

According to the Smart Energy Council, the cost of building seven nuclear reactors proposed by Mr Dutton could be as high as $600 billion.

Labor claims the plan would cost an average of $5.7 billion a year in interest payments on debt over the next decade.

But Mr Dutton says his option is cheaper than Labor’s plan for renewables — by some $263 billion.

On week one of the campaign, Mr Dutton was further pressed to provide more details on his nuclear plan, but they were not forthcoming.

Labor has sought to take advantage of Mr Dutton’s scant detail on his nuclear plan — continually saying essential services and departments will be cut to help pay for the reactors.

“We know that when Peter Dutton cuts, you pay — and when it comes to his $600 billion nuclear reactors, you’ll pay a lot,” Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said.

“Not only will he cut Medicare, but he will also make every single taxpayer pay $86,000 to cover the cost of his nuclear reactors.

“Peter Dutton is telling Australians they have to foot the bill for his nuclear reactors with higher taxes and worse services, all while sending the budget into the red for generations.”