‘There needs now to be a conversation about nuclear’: David Littleproud

Nationals Leader David Littleproud says there needs to be a conversation around nuclear amid the energy crisis facing Australia.

“Nuclear energy won’t happen overnight, and we’re not suggesting it’ll happen overnight, it won’t be on everyone’s corner overnight,” Mr Littleproud told Sky News Australia.

“But over the next five to ten years, we have the opportunity to look at new technologies, emerging technologies, and see whether that can be done in Australia to reduce emissions to give us baseload power.”

He said the party isn’t “throwing this down people’s throats” but is simply saying to create an environment where there can be “constructive conversation” with the community about nuclear energy and the role it can play in the future.

“We did an extensive polling about two years ago on this and understood that it wasn’t as popular because, in fact, people were getting their information from what they saw on Chernobyl and Fukushima, but also The Simpsons.”