Dutton floats incentives to gain nuclear social licence

Teasing the coalition's yet-to-be-unveiled energy policy in Sydney on Tuesday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the plan would likely include six nuclear sites.

Tasmania has been ruled out as a potential host state.

Mr Dutton said the coalition would seek a social licence by incentivising close-by communities with subsided energy, a model he said was used in the United States.

"It provides an incentive for industry and jobs to be created within those markets, and that is part of the consideration," he told the Australian Financial Review Business Summit.

The opposition is expected to release its energy policy ahead of the federal budget in May, with the plan likely to include overturning the moratorium on nuclear technology and possible sites for reactors on old coal station locations to take advantage of existing transmission infrastructure.

The Albanese government has dismissed nuclear as an unsuitable technology for Australia that has a high price tag and will take too long to roll out.

Assistant Energy Minister Jenny McAllister said the opposition leader was choosing "distraction over substance".

"There are three big problems with nuclear," she said.

"It is the most expensive energy technology, it won't be ready for decades, and it risks reliability to the grid."

She said the Australian Energy Market Operator was advising renewables firmed with storage, such as batteries or hydro power and supplemented by gas, as the lowest cost way to secure Australia's energy system through the transition.

"That's advice provided to us by the market operator."

Mr Dutton said nuclear power should be viewed as a companion to renewables.

"Nuclear is the only proven technology which emits zero emission and firms up renewables."

Mr Dutton addressed a number of what he described as "straw man arguments" against nuclear, including cost.

He used other regions with nuclear in the energy mix - such as the Ontario province of Canada - to make his case for the system-wide cost of the energy source and its influence on power bills.

Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood said she had not looked into the technology in detail but said "time frames and costs matter a lot".

"My view is we should always be technology neutral," she told the conference.

"So I don't think we should put a hand up and say 'not nuclear'.

"I have not looked into this issue in any detail but a number of people that I know and respect have suggested that the time frames and the costs are such that it won't stack up."

Speaking at the business conference on Monday evening, Business Council of Australia president Geoff Culbert said the politics of climate action had become so binary it was making it difficult to achieve.

Mr Culbert called for an independent expert body to devise a net zero plan to insulate it from political game playing.

He did not mention nuclear but said gas would be needed in the transition period until battery technology gets to scale or other substitutes become available.

Australian Associated Press