Be careful what you wish for

The third in the famous trilogy of spurious Chinese curses that begins with “May you live in interesting times” is “May all your wishes come true”. I may have triggered this curse with a piece I wrote for The Conversation in March. headlined “Dutton wants a ‘mature debate’ about nuclear power. By the time we’ve had one, new plants will be too late to replace coal” which ended

Talk about hypothetical future technologies is, at this point, nothing more than a distraction. If Dutton is serious about nuclear power in Australia, he needs to put forward a plan now. It must spell out a realistic timeline that includes the establishment of necessary regulation, the required funding model and the sites to be considered.

In summary, it’s time to put up or shut up.

Much to my surprise, a few days later, Dutton chose “put up”. And even though his preferred models keep falling over, he has pushed ahead, accepting the need for public ownership and compulsory acquisition of sites.

So, we are indeed having the debate the LNP has long demanded. It’s not going well for them, I think, but Labor is hamstrung by its embrace of AUKUS and acceptance of an indefinitely continuing role for coal and gas, at least internationally.

The second in the trilogy of curses is “May you come to the attention of important people”. I don’t suppose that my little article played any real role in Dutton’s decision to cross the Rubicon on nuclear power. But I’ll be pushing hard to show how misconceived that decision is, from now until the illusion of nuclear power is finally dispelled.

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