Two of Australia's planned offshore wind zones could go ahead if the Coalition wins the upcoming federal election, but The Nationals leader has firmly backed in nuclear as the long-term energy solution.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Liberal Party and Nationals have vowed to scrap plans for Hunter and Illawarra floating wind farms off the NSW coast - and the proposed Bunbury area in the Indian Ocean.
Nationals leader David Littleproud said the Gippsland coast project, "where there is community support", would proceed with his backing if he was deputy prime minister.
But he offered no firm position on the remaining two zones - in the Southern Ocean off Warrnambool and Port Fairy, and in Bass Strait off Burnie and Devonport in Tasmania.
"We've made very clear about the two Illawarra and Port Stephens ... and I understand the one in Bunbury, we've made it clear that we'll call that one in," he told ACM, the publisher of this masthead.
"We will be pragmatic," Mr Littleproud said.
The party leader's office contacted ACM late in the evening this story was published to say a Coalition government would also scrap the Southern Ocean zone.
The previous Coalition government under Scott Morrison introduced laws in 2021 paving the way for offshore wind projects, but The Nationals have been loudly opposed to many on- and offshore wind power projects since Labor came to power.
Instead, Mr Littleproud reiterated the Coalition's commitment to build seven nuclear power plants at a cost of $330 billion.
No need to add extra water
He again dismissed Labor concerns the policy could sap 500,000 megalitres, or a Sydney Harbour-sized reservoir, of extra water.
"We made it very clear that the capacity of those nuclear power plants would be constrained by the existing water entitlements of those coal-fired power stations they would replace," Mr Littleproud - who would host a reactor in his farming-dominated Queensland seat of Maranoa - said.
"Our [energy] plan, that continues to be out there, is $264 billion cheaper than an all-renewables approach, and it means that we don't need to litter regional Australia's landscape with transmission lines, solar panels, and wind turbines."
In the short term, the Coalition wants to prop up diminishing coal-generated energy supplies with more gas.
Regional public service jobs could go
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Littleproud did not rule out public service job losses from the 22,881-strong federal workforce in regional Australia.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has vowed to cut 41,000 public service job if he is made prime minister.
"Ultimately the Australian taxpayer has to pay for all this, and we are going broke because of a bloated bureaucracy," Mr Littleproud said.
He also said the scourge of domestic violence needed to be approached differently in regional areas where rates are much higher.
"I don't think there's a lack of will from anybody, if we're being genuine, from any state or any political party," he said.
"I think we've been lacking in putting funding into the preventative piece as well, about making sure the education piece from young, boys right through to young men, into grown men."
Bring regional young people home
The man who wants to be made deputy prime minister in May, when Australians will go to the polls, said he hopes to one day leave a legacy "for a bigger and better regional Australia".
"I got into this because I was driven by the fact that I just hated to see young people continue to leave regional Australia," the 48-year-old said.
"I'm here because I want to bring them home and I want to keep them home."
This story has been updated to reflect Mr Littleproud's office clarifying the MP's comments about 11 hours after the interview with ACM. His office said the Coalition would scrap the Southern Ocean offshore wind zone if it wins government.
