‘Massive scare campaign’ expected from Labor Party on nuclear energy

Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham says it looks like Australians are going to see a “massive scare campaign” from the Labor Party on nuclear energy. Mr Birmingham’s comments come as the Labor government rules out support for nuclear energy, while the Coalition is expected to outline its nuclear energy policy before the May budget. “Looks like we’re going to see a massive scare campaign from the Labor Party on this rather than actually looking at the fact that taking a technology-neutral approach to how Australia assesses its energy mix is a sensible thing to do,” Mr Birmingham told Sky News Australia. “The Albanese government’s plans involve tens of billions of dollars of network upgrades, which is essentially big, new infrastructure investments in poles and wires being built across the country. “There is a chance that in looking at the type of work that we have considered, you’ll be able to make better use of existing infrastructure rather than the enormous costs and the environmental impact that all of those additional new poles and wires require. “There’s a lot of different paths to the energy mix.”