Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

The lack of rain in my electorate of Mallee hasn't just wrecked the start of the cropping season for farmers; the lack of wind has been miserable for so-called windfarms as well. Our first wind drought since 2017 highlights what the Germans call dunkelflaute, or the dark doldrums for renewable energy, when the sun is not shining and the wind isn't blowing.

The nationals warned Labor and the Greens for a long time about the danger of relying on intermittent energy to replace coal and gas baseload power. Labor are struggling, at great taxpayer cost, to deliver large-scale batteries and Snowy Hydro 2.0 to back up renewables. Not only has the cost of Snowy Hydro 2.0 blown out sixfold to $12 billion; Snowy Hydro has also suspended their rain-generating cloud-seeding program for the first time in 20 years.

As the Labor and the Greens 'green dream' becomes the cost-of-living nightmare we predicted, the coalition have electrified the national energy debate, promising a proven technology, relied on by 32 other countries, with 440 power plants worldwide. Adding baseload zero emissions nuclear energy to the grid will cost a fraction of the $1.3 trillion that the renewables only approach is expected to cost, which we are all paying for in our energy bills. In Ontario, Canada, where nuclear energy is 60 per cent of their energy mix, households pay 14c per kilowatt hour—lower than any state or territory in Australia. Let's remember: South Australia is the poster child of Labor's and the Greens' dream, with their current 75 per cent renewables mix due to rise to 85 per cent by June 2026. But its current cost is over 50c per kilowatt hour.

In my home state of Victoria the Allan Labor government have a legislated target of 95 per cent by 2035, yet the same Victorian government claimed we are running out of gas—which is Labor gaslighting once again, because we actually have plenty of gas. The Victorian state government is locking up future gas exploration in a Labor ideological campaign for an exclusively wind-solar energy mix. Labor have been mugged by reality, with the Albanese government having to accept gas will now have a role in our energy future. However, AEMO has been warning about impending gas shortages which are suddenly upon us because Labor has undermined gas investment in our country. AEMO have now threatened to prop up gas supply in the east coast market, including potentially requiring producers, pipeline operators and storage providers to ensure sufficient supply. Labor's reckless rush into 'renewables only' as a supposed energy solution has not only put energy reliability in jeopardy; in my electorate of Mallee they are threatening prime agricultural land and pristine bushland with 400 kilometres of the VNI West transmission line, which is attracting wind turbine and solar panel proponents to divide communities with ham-fisted community consultation.

Let's contrast the land footprint of wind, solar and nuclear. Nuclear energy occupies 360 times less land than wind and 75 times less land than solar. That's not to mention the 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines that Labor's 82 per cent renewable generation by 2030 would require criss-crossing regional Australia. While Labor are in their own dunkelflaute—or the dark doldrums—the coalition will keep the lights on, shining brightly, with an all-Australian energy future underpinned by zero-emission 24/7 nuclear energy.

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