Nationals leader David Littleproud has back the likening of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a “child in a man’s body” by Liberal leader Peter Dutton after many Labor politicians and politically aligned unions mocked the Coalition’s nuclear site announcement with memes.
Speaking with Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell, the Nationals leader backed in Mr Dutton’s claim which he made at the Liberal Party’s federal council on Saturday.
“What do you make of Peter Dutton calling the PM a child in a man’s body? Do you agree?” Mr Clennell said.
“Well, I do and unfortunately the Prime Minister had an opportunity to lead and to look at this and work through the issues that we’re putting forward and saying ‘well if there is an alternative, here’s ours,’ but he’s used some churlish views to put out memes,” Mr Littleproud said.
“When he is leading this country and he’s about to put Australian submariners (to) lie and sleep them next to this technology every night, why would you demean it in such a puerile way when this is safe technology?
“And if that’s the only rebut he’s got to our energy policy – I would have thought a Prime Minister would have been above that and if that’s all he’s got he’s not fit to be Prime Minister and unfortunately I think all he’s done is diminished the office of Prime Minister and he’s diminished himself while sitting in it.”
The Nationals leader also touched on potential costings for nuclear reactors, which the Coalition is yet to reveal.
Mr Littleproud confirmed estimates put forward in the CSIRO 2023-24 GenCost report, which have the price of a large-scale reactor starting from $8.6b, were “in the ballpark” of the Coalition’s potential costings.
“That part of the GenCost, we’ve been more than upfront in saying that is in the ballpark, but we’ll be very specific about those costs and those upfront costs,” he said before hammering down that the sites would be Australian owned.
“And we’ve also been upfront about who owns this, not some carpetbagger from overseas comes in, takes it all and runs back for a 15 to 20-year period.
“This will be something that lasts for 80 to 100 years.
“There’s a big difference in this and yes there always has been upfront costs, but it’s the long term dividend that’s paid back to the Australian people in their ownership, and in reliable base load power.”
Mr Littleproud’s comments come after Mr Dutton went off script to an audience of Liberal Party politicians and launched an attack on the Prime Minister over Labor’s array of anti-nuclear memes that arose after the Coalition’s sites announcement.
“He’s a man with a mind still captured in his university years, he’s a child in a man’s body,” the Liberal leader said.
Labor’s response, Mr Dutton told the Liberal Party faithful, was an “affront to the intelligence of voters” as he called for an end to the “juvenile” behaviour as there needed to be a “mature conversation” about the nation’s energy policy.
“The time and the obligation now is for the Prime Minister to step up, to leave behind the sectional interests and the factional games, and to stop the juvenile banter,” he said.
“Frankly their behaviour is an affront to the intelligence of voters whom they seek to represent.
“With 400 reactors operating worldwide today, more than 30 countries using nuclear power, and some 50 countries looking to introduce it for the first time, the facts continue to disarm Labor’s childish propaganda.
“Australians want a rational conversation on energy policy, not a continuation of culture wars.”
Kicking off the anti-nuclear attack, Australian Unions posted a close-up of a bizarre-looking eight-legged microscopic animal, known as a Tardigrade, with the text “Under Dutton, this will be your family dog”.
Victorian Labor Premier Jacinta Allan added to this by posting an image of a Gippsland waterfront altered to include multiple nuclear rods and three-eyed fish from a well-known episode of The Simpsons.
“The Liberal Party want a toxic and expensive nuclear reactor in Gippsland,” Premier Allan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.