In a surprise announcement earlier this week, Angus Taylor, the new favourite party member of the Coalition’s powerbrokers, unveiled an amazing blueprint. What was his goal? To cut energy costs and thereby government spending by a third. The Coalition’s nuclear policy is what’s at the soul of these plans. It involves constructing multiple new nuclear power plants over the next few decades. These initiatives are indeed very ambitious and far-reaching. Further information on costs and targets will only be released following the first budget announcement expected later this month.
Taylor further stressed that a significant amount of the infrastructure expense, especially regarding transmission lines, would need to be assumed by the private sector. In fact, he said there was a fire in his belly to reintroduce a budget rule. This rule would seek to keep total spending increasing no faster than the economic growth rate. Exactly how much it will cost and how we’ll roll it out are still big question marks.
Nuclear Energy Ambitions
The Coalition's nuclear policy is set to redefine Australia's energy landscape. Angus Taylor simultaneously announced that three of the potential new nuclear plants would be government-owned — an extraordinary democratization of Australia’s typically ultra-free-market energy policy. He asserted that this move would lead to a 44 percent reduction in energy costs compared to Labor's current plans.
"Let's be clear, that's not all paid by government. A significant portion will be private sector investment … We'll restrict government's role to what is absolutely necessary, [such as] the seven nuclear generators." – Angus Taylor
Despite these assertions, Taylor did not cite any detailed financial estimates for taxpayers’ cost of these nuclear builds. He promised that each nuclear plant would cost taxpayers no more than $20 billion but skipped over a lot of important details.
"They'd cost [taxpayers] under $20 billion each. We've been clear about that." – Angus Taylor
Spending and Migration Cuts
In addition to energy market reforms, the Coalition plans to reduce growth in government spending, public service creation and migration. Taylor confirmed the Coalition’s intent to reintroduce a sensible budget rule to limit the growth in government spending to the rate of economic growth. Specifics as to how these ambitious fiscal objectives will be made a reality are sorely lacking.
"some amazing people in our public service, but a bigger team is not always a better team" – Angus Taylor
Taylor has suggested targeting large cuts to net migration. She didn’t release any detailed figures or repeat the old Coalition plan to reduce the migration intake by almost half. The Coalition has said they will develop their position on migration after the election.
"We don't know how many positions Labor has put in place. We'll find out more in the budget. The last number we had was 36,000. It's been growing more, we know that," – Angus Taylor
Opposition figures have lambasted the lack of concrete plans, calling the Coalition out for a lack of readiness.
"We are way too late in the term for those characters to still be making it up as they go along," – Jim Chalmers
Political Reactions and Criticisms
This absence of specificity in the Coalition’s policy proposals has led to some of the fiercest attacks from political opponents. Labor’s Jim Chalmers called the Coalition’s approach secretive and attacked their failure to detail specific plans or costings.
"They either haven't done the work or won't come clean on their secret cuts or both," – Jim Chalmers
Chalmers expressed concern over potential cuts to essential services like the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), warning of the impact on vulnerable Australians.
"huge cuts to the NDIS and that would send a shiver up the spine of people who rely on the program" – Jim Chalmers
Taylor was adamant that the Coalition’s commitments are financially possible. He had promised that full details would follow in the days after the budget announcement.
"We're making promises we know we can afford, but we're going to see what is in the budget and how much headroom there is" – Angus Taylor
