Anthony Albanese distances himself from new nuclear attack ad in ‘codswallop’ energy battle

Peter Dutton has challenged the Prime Minister to a debate on nuclear, as Anthony Albanese distances himself from a divisive new Labor attack ad that the Coalition has blasted as “codswallop”.

A video message by former Greens candidate and doctor Margaret Beavis was shared on the Australian Labor Party’s official Instagram account on Thursday, where she claims there are adverse health effects linked with nuclear power.

“It’s very clear from research, looking at over 300,000 workers, that there are significantly increased rates of cancer, heart attacks and strokes amongst the workforce in the nuclear industries... working with radiation has no safe lower limit,” she said.

Mr Albanese sought to distance himself from the latest ad on Friday. When asked if he had safety concerns about nuclear, Mr Albanese said his concern was the “economics” of the issue.

“The economics of this issue are that it does not make any sense whatsoever for Australia to say: ‘Stop what is happening. Stop the investment that is occurring in our energy grid and wait until the 2040s in order to develop from nothing a nuclear industry’,” he said at a press conference.

“It does not add up, it does not make sense, and that is my focus.”

Coalition foreign spokesman Simon Birmingham had earlier defended the plan as “safe and feasible”.

“It is safe and feasible in countries right around the world. You’ve got every G20 country bar Australia either producing nuclear energy, relying on nuclear energy or with plans to have nuclear energy,” he told ABC Radio.

Asked if he was running a scare campaign, Mr Albanese retorted that the only “scary” thing was “the failure of the Coalition to have any proper costings”.

“It’s now a week since they released their costings, and it has been a shambles... They are making things up,” he said.

“What we know is that nuclear does not add up because it is too costly, it takes too long, and it will not deliver the energy security that Australia needs.”

Energy Minister Chris Bowen had earlier said the real “codswallop” was the opposition’s entire nuclear police.

“What’s codswallop is these costings they released last week. One, this modeling is flawed. Two, Peter Dutton is lying about it,” Mr Bowen told morning television.

“If he wants to have a discussion about codswallop, bring it on because his entire energy plan is complete codswallop.”

Mr Dutton said the country deserved a “mature debate” about an ongoing reliable energy system, and said the “tardy” video shared by the Labor Party was a sign the Government was “becoming more and more desperate”.

He also called on Mr Albanese to debate him on nuclear power.

“But he won’t take up that (offer), because... I think he’s scared at the moment. He’s scared of the fact that he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he doesn’t know how to manage the economy,” he said.