Australia election 2025 live: Coalition policy costings reveal plan to have two nuclear power plants operating by the mid-2030s
What’s in the Coalition’s costings on nuclear energy?
Adam Morton
Some more on the Coalition’s costings and what they mean for climate and energy – they do give us some belated estimates about the cost of developing a nuclear energy industry.
It says it would aim to lift a ban on nuclear generators and establish a civil nuclear program, with plants to be owned by the government. It says it would “form partnerships with the most experienced nuclear companies in the world to develop and operate the plants”.
Over the next four years, it has promised funding for programs to support the creation of a nuclear energy industry, including $87.5m for community engagement and an extra $93.7m for the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.
In the longer term, it has said it would commit $36.4bn in equity for two projects that it says could be operating by the mid 2030s, and $118.2bn for the seven projects it has promised by 2050.
These are highly optimistic numbers for starting a nuclear industry from scratch compared with recent experiences overseas.
Take, for example, the Hinkley Point C station in the UK. It has been repeatedly delayed – by more than a decade – and the expected cost has tripled to about A$90bn.
Only a few large nuclear reactors have reached construction stage this century in comparable countries in North America and western Europe.
Key events
Also indicated in the Coalition’s costings is the cutting of Labor’s Prac Payment scheme which, from July this year, will provide $319.50 per week (benchmarked to the single Austudy rate) to students undertaking placements in in teaching, nursing and midwifery, and social work courses.
The policy was a recommendation of the Universities Accord and has been lobbied for by student bodies and the Greens.
The costings show savings of $113m in the first year to modify the Commonwealth payments, or $556m over four years.
The minister for education, Jason Clare, said Peter Dutton was “taking an axe” to education funding, “like the Liberals always do”.
Under the Liberals, students will be lumped with more debt, they will rip funding away from nursing and teaching standards, and they will take the chainsaw to childcare … the Liberal party cannot be trusted on education.
Australian Education Union (Aeu) federal president, Correna Haythorpe, said the cuts were “disappointing and short-sighted”.
The Commonwealth Prac Payment helps relieve financial pressure on student teachers who give up paid work to complete essential teaching placements. Removing it sends a clear message that the Dutton government does not value the work or contribution of future teachers.
Henry Belot
Liberal backbencher criticises Coalition’s plan to strip foreign aid budget
A Liberal backbencher has criticised the Coalition’s plan to strip $800m from the foreign aid budget over four years, within hours of it being announced.
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, said the Coalition was freezing the indexation of foreign aid, not cutting it.
But that has not eased the concerns of Save the Children’s chief executive, Mat Tinkler, who said “at a time of catastrophic global need, we’d hoped to see an increase in lifesaving aid”.
Nor has it convinced one member of the Liberal backbench, who asked to speak anonymously on the eve of an election:
It is a core Liberal value to support those in other parts of the world who, through mere circumstance of their birth do not have the access to health care, education, personal safety and prosperity we enjoy in Australia.
During the Menzies era Australian foreign aid spending achieved its highest ever average as a percentage of our GDP. This was driven by the famous Colombo Plan.
Investment in foreign aid is not a “nice to have”. It is a key component of our identity as a compassionate neighbour and nation. That must and should continue to extend to Africa and South East Asia.
Coalition’s nuclear reactor costings ‘laughable’, Labor says
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, appeared on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing earlier to respond to the Coalition’s costings. She said it was “no surprise” they were released on Thursday afternoon (Labor released its costings this Monday).
I think today has confirmed what we all knew, which is we will see high taxes under Liberals, savage cuts and a lot of holes in the document that they have listed this afternoon, including nuclear.
Asked why Labor did not accept the Coalition’s nuclear figures, which are $36bn in the medium term, Gallagher replied, “look what is happening around the world,” and called it “laughable” to suggest you did not need more short-term investment to build reactors.
They are either not committed to it or are hiding the numbers from people because they are going to make savage cuts including to Medicare.
Asked how she was feeling ahead of polling day, Gallagher said Labor had run a “good campaign” with positive policies and strong leadership.
I am always nervous and anxious, that is me naturally. It is exacerbated during the campaign … I don’t think there is any complacency at all on the Labor side. We know how hard it is for Labor governments to win federally.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says ‘there is a plan to ensure schools are no longer ideological’
There’s been some back and forth today about whether or not the Coalition would change school curriculums outside normal reviews.
It follows accusations from Peter Dutton that kids were being “indoctrinated” and suggestions a condition could be placed on funding to ensure kids weren’t “guided by some sort of an agenda that’s come out of universities”.
Today, the opposition leader said there was no plan to reform the curriculum, when pressed by Guardian Australia’s Josh Butler.
But speaking to reporters earlier in Alice Springs, the Nationals senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said she had conversed with the shadow education minister about education reform:
With the conversations that I’ve had with our shadow cabinet minister, Sarah Henderson, there is a plan to ensure that schools are no longer ideological … indoctrinating children, they are actually teaching education.
So … watch this space?
Henry Belot
International development council condemns Coalition’s plan to slash foreign aid budget
The Australian Council for International Development has reacted to the Coalition’s plan to slash the foreign aid budget with “alarm”.
A Coalition government would cut $813m from the foreign aid budget over four years, but maintain its assistance to the Pacific region.
The council’s chief executive, Matthew Maury, condemned the plan:
At a time when the world is facing huge global challenges, we urge the Coalition to consider the bipartisan commitment to aid that has cemented Australia’s standing in our region over decades.
As Australia’s aid generosity is already declining, today’s announcement if implemented will further exacerbate this trend, leaving us far less generous than our like-minded counterparts and a less reliable global partner.
Join Matilda Boseley and Krishani Dhanji now on the Tell Me More livestream!
Guardian Australia’s Tell Me More live streams are your chance to ask your burning election news questions to the people who wrote that news in the first place.
Election day is now just 36-ish hours away. To make sure you are prepared to watch the results roll in, Matilda Boseley is live with political reporter and live blogger Krishani Dhanji (she was just here!) to answer all your questions about not just election day, but election evening too.
If you have a question you want answered, simply pop it in the comments on YouTube or TikTok or email australia.tellmemore@theguardian.com
How did the Coalition arrive at an estimate of 110,000 public servants in Canberra?
Sarah Basford Canales
Earlier in the Coalition’s press conference on policy costings, Jane Hume said there were around 110,000 public servants in the nation’s capital.
According to the Australian Public Service Commission, which acts a bit like the government’s central HR agency, there were 68,435 public servants employed in Canberra as of June 2024.
There was a bit of back-and-forth in the press conference but the journalist questioned Hume on whether all 41,000 government jobs would be taken from Canberra, as Peter Dutton said last week.
That’s because 41,000 jobs from a workforce just shy of 70,000 would have a significant impact on how the bureaucracy functions as well as Canberra’s economy.
Hume said the 70,000 figure was “not correct”, suggesting instead it was more like 110,000. So where’s that figure from? The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The ABS, however, has a slightly different definition of what a public servant is compared to the APSC. The ABS’s figures include the military and reserves – which is why, according to its data, there were 365,000 “public servants” by mid-2024, with 109,800 based in the bush capital.
On the other hand, the APSC’s figures state that by June 2024, 185,343 public servants, excluding military and reserves, were employed.
The opposition has already ruled out cuts to military and reserve numbers.
Hume softened Dutton’s previous ruling that all 41,000 jobs cut by 2030 would come from Canberra. The shadow public service minister said Canberra would remain the “focus”, leaving the door open for job cuts from elsewhere around the country.
What’s in the Coalition’s costings on nuclear energy?
Adam Morton
Some more on the Coalition’s costings and what they mean for climate and energy – they do give us some belated estimates about the cost of developing a nuclear energy industry.
It says it would aim to lift a ban on nuclear generators and establish a civil nuclear program, with plants to be owned by the government. It says it would “form partnerships with the most experienced nuclear companies in the world to develop and operate the plants”.
Over the next four years, it has promised funding for programs to support the creation of a nuclear energy industry, including $87.5m for community engagement and an extra $93.7m for the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.
In the longer term, it has said it would commit $36.4bn in equity for two projects that it says could be operating by the mid 2030s, and $118.2bn for the seven projects it has promised by 2050.
These are highly optimistic numbers for starting a nuclear industry from scratch compared with recent experiences overseas.
Take, for example, the Hinkley Point C station in the UK. It has been repeatedly delayed – by more than a decade – and the expected cost has tripled to about A$90bn.
Only a few large nuclear reactors have reached construction stage this century in comparable countries in North America and western Europe.
Climate and environment programs targeted for cuts in Coalition policy costings
Adam Morton
The Coalition is promising to slash climate and environment programs if elected, including taking $1.7bn from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency over the next four years in a change to restore it to “its original function”.
In costings released today, the Coalition said it would abolish tax breaks for electric vehicles (saving $3.2 bn over four years), a green hydrogen production tax credit scheme ($1.5bn), the Net Zero Economy Agency to help communities through the transition ($428m) and not go ahead with Labor’s promised home batteries program ($2.3bn).
It also said it would save $590m by abolishing the “family car and ute tax” – a reference to the new vehicle efficiency standard, which is applied to auto companies to encourage a shift to cleaner cars.
It would also cut funding for Labor’s nature positive program and promised (but not yet created) Environment Protection Agency ($65m), “re-phase” funding for the Australian Antarctic Program (saving $43m) and redirect additional funding that had been committed to the climate and environment department ($48m) and for an “international climate step up” program ($28m).
The cuts are broadly consistent with the Coalition’s position on the climate crisis. It has promised to unwind or scrap most Labor policies and not promise anything new to cut emissions in the next decade.
Angus Taylor claims ‘no ambiguity, never has been’ on Coalition’s public service cuts policy
Taylor is also pointed to the policy to cut 41,000 public servants, which Taylor says is now focused on “natural attrition and hiring freezes”.
We are very confident that natural attrition can get us to the outcomes we described … the focus is on Canberra -based roles. It is not focused on front-line roles. We have been clear about these principles all the way along. No ambiguity on that, never has been.
On nuclear, which is a key part of the Coalition’s policy platform and regularly attacked by Labor, Taylor says of the criticisms: “they are lies.”
The costings project $36bn in the medium term – which appears extremely small for an entire nuclear infrastructure suite. Taylor says this is “consistent with everything we have been saying all the way along”.
Finally, he is asked if he would run for the Liberal leadership if Peter Dutton loses the election. He says he is “running for treasurer”.
The nature of election campaigns is you are focused on one thing and one thing only, in my book anyway, that is winning. Winning for me means becoming treasurer of this great country.
Taylor claims $800m reduction in foreign aid is ‘freezing the indexation’ and not a cut
The Coalition’s costings also showed a $800m reduction in foreign aid. Amid a US cut in aid and ongoing global conflicts, is that the right approach to be taking?
Angus Taylor says the Coalition is freezing the indexation, not cutting aid. He says we are in a “very unstable environment” which is why there is a $21bn defence boost over five years.
The Save the Children Australia Ceo, Mat Tinkler, said “at a time of catastrophic global need, we’d hoped to see an increase in lifesaving aid – not an $813.5m cut that will likely hurt the world’s most vulnerable children”:
We welcome the decision to spare the Pacific, Indonesia and Timor-Leste. But Australia has a responsibility beyond our region. We cannot turn our backs on Africa, south Asia and investment into critical global funds – particularly at a time when children there need us more than ever.
This announcement from the Coalition follows a disturbing global trend of political leaders, including those in the US, UK, [the] Netherlands and Germany who have all recently cut their own aid budgets.
Angus Taylor says best way to tackle illicit sales of vapes is to have a regulated sector with price signals
Taylor is asked about a potential tax on vaping to crack down on the black market. He says there’s already a “big vaping tax being imposed on Australians by criminal organisations, criminal gangs”.
We would rather have a properly regulated set with a sensible tax from the government … what you are seeing is a illicit sales of vapes …. and it is a big part of the criminal activity … we have to rid ourselves of this and an important step forward in doing that is to have a regulated vape sector where there is a price signal.
I think that’s a sensible pathway forward … we are fighting the criminal organisation and the criminal gangs that are involved in this market and we know there are deep, deep links and we need to weed them out … alongside making sure there’s price signal to young Australians who want to take up vaping, this is not something that we should encourage people to do.
Taylor says Coalition would be on a budget ‘improvement trajectory’
Taylor is again pointed to the fact deficits would be higher than Labor over the first two years. Should we then reconsider our AAA credit rating?
He says the Coalition is “improving dramatically” the budget.
You’ve got to be on an improvement trajectory, Labor have taken us off a cliff, they have deficits as far as the eye can see, $180bn of deficits under Labor.
We’ve got to be realistic about household budgets -and we are providing 25 cents a litre of fuel costs, $1,200 tax offset for up to $1,200 for 85% of taxpayers, these are important initiatives to fix two budgets, this is the fundamental point, two budgets have gone badly into the red under Labor.
Would he deliver a surplus in the first term as treasurer, though? Taylor says the Coalition’s goal is to improve the economy and get it growing faster than we are spending.
Then you get the budget back to balance. We will get back to balance as fast as we possibly can … Labor has wrecked the budget, they’ve wrecked it. There’s no question about it, they’ve taken it off the cliff … and our job is to fix that alongside fixing household budgets, it is in a disastrous situation as starting point and we are getting a significant improvement including a $40bn reduction in debt.
Taylor defends Coalition costings
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, is appearing on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing to discuss the Coalition’s costings.
Asked if he’s “put up the white flag” on delivering a surplus, with larger upfront deficits than Labor, he replies: “absolutely not” and there will be a $14bn improvement in the budget position over four years.
Taylor says the Coalition is seeking to balance household budgets that have been “absolutely smashed under bad Labor government”.
We have seen homegrown inflation, the biggest reduction in our standard of living in history, more than any other country … we’ve already set a goal of getting productivity back, getting growth moving … getting spending to where we need on defending the nation … and making sure that we’ve got those critical initiatives like helping young Australians into a house, investing in housing supply and making sure that essential services like health and aged care get the spending they need.
Chalmers says Coalition ‘want to make money off people vaping’
Chalmers takes just one question – on whether the federal government would consider the Coalition’s vape tax if re-elected, given how much revenue is being lost to the black market.
He says the difference between Labor and the Coalition is “we want to get the kids off vapes” and his opposition wants to tax people for using them.
We see them as a gateway to smoking. And we’ve been very concerned about that … The Coalition has made it clear today that they want to make money off people vaping, so that’s the difference now when it comes to tobacco excise more broadly.
We know that that’s an issue in the budget. It’s why we invested, I think, another $162m over the next couple of years in the budget to crack down on people who are avoiding paying the tobacco excise. But we want to get the kids off vapes. The Coalition wants to tax kids on vapes. That’s the difference.
Chalmers says ‘at least five substantial holes’ in Coalition costings
Chalmers says responsible economic management has been a “defining feature” of the Labor government, pointing to two budget surpluses for the first time in almost two decades.
There are at least five substantial holes in the Coalition’s costings. They haven’t provided anywhere near enough for their nuclear reactors. They’ve got their numbers wrong on their job cuts in the Australian public service. They’ve got their numbers wrong on their long lunches policy, on their petrol policy and on their mortgage deductibility policy as well.
It’s hard to imagine that Angus Taylor has had three years to come up with this, and he’s come up with at least five substantial black holes in his costings that he has released this afternoon.
Chalmers says Australians have made a “lot of progress together” on the economy but are still under pressure in an uncertain global environment.
In uncertain and volatile times, the last thing we need is a volatile leader like Peter Dutton. If Australians want stability and responsibility, they need to elect a Labor majority at the election on Saturday. That was clear before these costings were released, but especially clear now. These costings released this afternoon by the Coalition are a joke. They are a sham. They are a costings con job …
