Pauline goes nuclear as One Nation unveils new energy policy

Pauline Hanson will push for the construction of a nuclear reactor in regional New South Wales – as well as three new coal-fired power plants – as One Nation moves to consolidate a surge in support from disillusioned Coalition voters.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal One Nation’s new energy policy includes pledges to establish a national domestic gas reserve, extend the life of existing coal fired power plants, ban offshore wind and renewables on agricultural land, and withdraw Australia from the Paris Agreement.

“One Nation will advocate for the construction of one advanced pressurised water nuclear reactor to provide about 1400MW of emissions-free baseload power on Australia’s east coast, at a location to be determined in consultation with the Australian community, at an approximate cost of $6.8 billion (based on projected costs for the 1400MW Shin-Hanul-3 and Shin-Hanul-4 reactors being built at Uljin, South Korea)”, the eight-page policy document reads.

One Nation also wants to build three new “black coal ultra-supercritical power plants” at Collinsville in Queensland’s Whitsunday region, Port Augusta in South Australia, and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, on the sites of shut down coal plants, at an estimated combined cost of $5.1 billion.

Their plan to extend the life of existing coal plants in New South Wales and Queensland would apply to five generators: Bayswater, Eraring, Vale’s Point, Callide, and Gladstone – while the party’s proposal for a national gas reserve would see at least 15 per cent of all gas extracted in Australia provided solely to the domestic market.

After winning 6.4 per cent of the primary vote at the May 3 election, support for One Nation has surged as high as 18 per cent according to published polls, amid infighting in the Coalition over net zero and immigration policy.

Senator Hanson has also been publicly courting former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce to join the party following his decision to leave the Nationals, possibly to run for the Senate in New South Wales.

Senator Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, told Nine Newspapers this week the party has recruited a further two “high-profile” MPs to join its ranks in the new year.
In comments likely to be seized on by her opponents, Senator Hanson’s energy policy – which brands the energy transition a “demolition job on our way of life” – expresses scepticism about the impacts of climate change.

In comments likely to be seized on by her opponents, Senator Hanson’s energy policy – which brands the energy transition a “demolition job on our way of life” – expresses scepticism about the impacts of climate change.

“The goal [of net zero] was sold to Australians as a way to prevent, or at least mitigate, global ‘warming’ and its supposed effects …”

“These supposed effects are based on discredited computer modelling that does not account for temperature records reliably documented for decades before 1910 and deliberately distorts temperature records to falsely portray temperature rises as greater than they truly have been.”

Senator Hanson labelled net zero “a far-left vehicle for economic and social control”.

“It doesn’t stop with energy, but it ends with restricting people’s movement, diets, employment, education, and housing. It ends with taking away our choices and our freedoms, and there’s nothing more un-Australian than that.”