Collie left out of Dutton’s brisk West Australia tour despite major nuclear policy announcement

Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has snubbed the South West during his trip to WA this week, despite calls for him to visit Collie amid his party’s nuclear plan announcement. Mr Dutton was nowhere to be seen in Collie during his WA trip despite the South West town being thrust into the centre of a nuclear energy policy, which has been met with considerable unease by residents. The Federal MP toured Perth and made a quick trip to Kalgoorlie-Boulder for the annual Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum. According to a spokesperson for Mr Dutton, he will visit Collie before the year’s end, but had already flown back to the country’s capital when the Times went to print. “Mr Dutton will visit Collie before the end of the year,” the spokesperson said. “Our shadow energy minister Ted O’Brien was in Collie recently to talk about our plan for nuclear power.” Mr O’Brien visited Collie in late July to meet with Collie shire councillors and other community leaders about the plans, which include Collie as one of seven locations nationwide proposed for a nuclear reactor. It forms part of the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy it will look to enact if it wins the upcoming Federal election. Under the proposal, a small modular reactor would be put in place at the retiring Muja Power Station site. The cost and specific time frame of the reactor has not been revealed, but the Times understands the Coalition will reveal costings before the election. Mr O’Brien’s visit was welcomed by shire president Ian Miffling who said he appreciated the MP making the trip to Collie. While addressing media in Innaloo on Friday, Mr Dutton said Australia needed to be mature about nuclear. “Let’s have a sensible discussion, nuclear is used by, out of the top 20 countries in the world, every country except Australia,” he said. “Nineteen of the 20 G20 economies are using nuclear or have signed up to it, there are dozens and dozens of countries who are looking at further investment into nuclear.” Given the Federal Government’s proposal to build an offshore wind farm in Geographe Bay, the Coalition’s nuclear plan is set to make energy policy a wedge issue for South West voters in the upcoming Federal election. Mr Dutton said his party was not against renewables, but a mix was needed to provide reliable energy. ‘Renewables are great, we’re strongly supportive of renewables,” he said. “We just can’t pretend that they work 24/7, there’s been a wind drought, as you know, which means that the contribution of wind energy drops down to, for example, recently 16 per cent of energy going into the grid. “You can’t run a modern economy on that.”