Dutton’s nuclear notion costs a bomb

NUMBERS NUKE PETER’S PIPE DREAM

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s push to switch coalmine sites out for small nuclear reactors (SMRs) would cost us $387 billion, the Department of Climate Change and Energy found, because we’d need at least 71 to match the coal power. Guardian Australia reports that’s about $25,000 a taxpayer — far more per megawatt hour than cheap power from the sun or wind, per the latest Net Zero Australia report. Not that it’s stopped Dutton from droning on about Australia needing to jump on the “nuclear train”. Do we? China has 50 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity and 95-120 gigawatts of solar expected this year alone, The Conversation adds. Multibillion-dollar SMRs in the US, France, Finland and the UK have either blown way over budget, way over time, or been abandoned altogether. This comes as the South Australian Chamber of Mines & Energy — whose biggest member, the AFR ($) notes, is uranium miner BHP — told the state government nuclear is the “logical solution”.

Meanwhile, while politicians dither, we suffer — some 18.1 million Australians, including nearly every person in Queensland (97%) and NSW (93%), were hit by floods or fires in the past year. We’ve got to change our “resilient infrastructure”, one expert said via Brisbane Times ($), because it’s based on milder weather conditions that are now a thing of the past.

WHISTLEBLOWER HERO

A taxpayer who was helped by Australian Taxation Office (ATO) whistleblower Richard Boyle told the ABC he blames himself for Boyle’s legal mess. Boyle was arrested after he spoke to ABC and Nine newspapers (then Fairfax) about unethical ATO tactics to target vulnerable small businesses to meet revenue goals. Magazine publisher Dirk Fielding, who was recovering from an aneurysm while a worker quietly defrauded him, remembers his desperation when the ATO suddenly drained his account for a tax debt. Boyle helped restore the funds and set up a payment plan instead. We wouldn’t be here today without his help, Fielding said — but when Four Corners contacted him about Boyle, he rang to warn the former ATO worker. The cops raided Boyle’s home soon after. Fielding feels “to blame” and called Boyle’s persecution “insanity”.

Meanwhile ASIC is going after boards and executives who don’t protect companies against cyberattacks, the AFR ($) reports. It comes a year after Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said Optus left “the window open” for hackers to steal our personal data. The regulator said business must take “reasonable steps” or “reasonable investments” otherwise it’ll “commence proceedings”. There were 409 data breaches between January and June, data from the office of the Australian information commissioner found, and the ABS reckons one in five businesses were hacked last year. Finally, Bumble, Tinder and Hinge have also been told to clean up their security or the government will intervene. The Albanese government is calling for an industry code to bar predators and criminals, the Herald Sun reports.

UNWELCOME IN THEIR WORLD

“‘Like all good Liberal functions, no Welcome to Country,’’ Sky News’s Peta Credlin reportedly told an event to commemorate former PM Tony Abbott’s brief leadership to cheers from the room. Dismal. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, former prime minister Scott Morrison, former treasurer Joe Hockey, Liberal MP Angus Taylor, former radio shock jock Alan Jones, and “desiccated” ex-senator Eric Abetz were among the 250 in attendance, the SMH ($) says. It comes as Yes campaigner Megan Davis deleted a tweet remarking “ABC just continually platforms the NO campaign”, The Australian ($) reports, after No campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine appeared on Insiders, and Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle was on 7.30. More than 1,500 people had liked the tweet. Ironically, ABC’s Laura Tingle was forced to defend the opposite — that the Yes side had been given precedence — in a statement on X.

Speaking of News Corp… its new digital hub for gambling coverage, which offers reports, videos, podcasts, previews and analysis about Ladbrokes, Bet365, TopSport and Betr offers, has been called a “new low,” Guardian Australia reports. CODE Bet is a section of the sports journalism site CODE Sports — one of the headlines from last year was “If we could bet on pogo stick races, we would.” News Corp is “preying” on “vulnerable” Australians who already lose the most worldwide from gambling, Alliance for Gambling Reform boss Carol Bennett said. Finally News Corp’s coverage of historic Yes marches was begrudgingly headlined “Yes camp streets ahead, at least for a day” in The Australian ($). An estimated 200,000 Australians joined Yes campaign marches across the country yesterday — Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said she was “almost crying” at the size of the turnout.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Reza Baluchi longs to cross the high seas in a giant floating hamster wheel, but the US coast guard just won’t let him. He was arrested late last month just off the coast of Georgia in a homemade cylinder made of buoys and wire — with a completely straight face, the Iranian-born guy told authorities that he was en route to London, England, some 6,500 kilometres away. Uhuh, they said, and is this… vessel…. registered? Baluchi said he totally had the registration but just couldn’t find it right now. So the fun police — excuse me, the coast guard — told him they were ending his unsafe voyage.

But this is hardly the first time he has tried to cross the ocean on his homemade tube. Baluchi set off back in 2014 before being thwarted by the pesky coast guard. So he tried again two years later, but the coast guard intervened again. This would be the time, Baluchi assured himself when he set off in 2021 — before the coast guard arrested him. So why does he do it? “If you drive a boat, nobody cares,” he told VICE. “Bubble, nobody did before.” One guy who worked from the coast guard said it was the weirdest call he’d ever received — some man was in a bubble, a boater reported, and had asked for directions to Bermuda. We called Baluchi’s vessel the “hamster wheel of doom”, the worker added. Baluchi doesn’t get it — he has six lights, two life jackets, and a laptop to watch movies. And he’s not going to stop trying. “Dream no coming after you,” Baluchi told VICE. “You must follow your dream.”

Wishing you a spot of Baluchi’s adventurousness today.

SAY WHAT?

The No campaign slogan — ‘If you don’t know, vote No’ — is morally bankrupt. It encourages citizens not to engage with an important issue. Really, if you don’t know, you should find out.

Barry Jones

The former Labor minister called it “basic decency” when it comes to a question as important as recognising Indigenous peoples in our constitution.

CRIKEY RECAP

Price’s denialism takes the Coalition to a new Indigenous Affairs policy: erasure of First Peoples

BERNARD KEANE

“With non-Indigenous colleagues cheering her on, [Jacinta Nampijinpa] Price lays the way open not merely to the defeat of the Voice referendum, but to a sea change in Indigenous relations. Presumably the Coalition position — Price is the portfolio shadow minister — is now that colonisation was entirely a good thing, that intergenerational trauma is a kind of scam, that there is no need for a separate Indigenous Affairs portfolio.

“The way is open to a full assimilationist policy and the closure of any Indigenous-specific program of any kind — after all, they’re surely ‘divisive’, aren’t they? This is where the No campaign inevitably leads — any form of recognition of the experience of First Peoples must be suspect and divisive, not merely that proposed for the constitution.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Israeli forces attack Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque (Al Jazeera)

Landmark Sudan skyscraper engulfed in flames (BBC)

Halliburton equipment worth $7.1m imported into Russia in past year, customs records show (The Guardian)

Irregular migration needs a ‘European answer,’ says EU chief during visit to Lampedusa (euronews)

Rugby World Cup: Fiji beat Australia for the first time in 69 years (Stuff)

Trump says it was his decision to persist with 2020 election challenges (Reuters)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Resurgent Libs offer better vision than Labor’s dystopia — Tony Abbott (The Australian) ($): “Our party is the freedom party, the tradition party and, above all else, the patriot party, because we think this is the best country in the world and want to keep it that way. We support greater freedom, lower taxes, smaller government; we support the family, small business and institutions that have stood the test of time, and; above all else, we want to make our country even better by building on its strengths. And because we’re the only major party that’s not based on a section, on a region, on a singular idea, or on one dominant personality, we have the potential to reach out to every Australian, regardless of birth or background, especially to all those Australians who think the best way to get a fair go is to have a fair go yourself. That’s why it’s our party that’s presided over our country’s best times.

“And that’s why in these times when Labor governments around the country variously tell public servants they can keep the same wage but only work four days a week, mostly from home; tell people they should aspire to be renters for life, without the essential stake in our society that home ownership gives; think Catholic hospitals can arbitrarily be nationalised, hard drugs decriminalised and euthanasia for depressed teenagers legalised, and promote a dystopian vision of boundless plains of solar panels and endless forests of wind turbines as our energy future, our party is overdue for a great resurgence. At a high level, politics involves something akin to an apostolic succession.”

My country is not just a geopolitical chess piece. It’s in the line of fire — Brian Hioe (The SMH) ($): “Taiwan, no longer a place of international obscurity, now looms large in the public consciousness as a potential flashpoint for conflict between great powers. This is a sharp contrast to a decade ago, when Taiwan was largely overshadowed by the economic and political rise of China. Back then, I was a student participant in the 2014 Sunflower Movement — which involved the month-long occupation of the Taiwanese legislature to protest against closer political relations with China. The shift has been striking. There was hardly any attention to our actions but, by contrast, Hong Kong’s ‘umbrella’ movement later that year attracted significant international coverage.

“Taiwanese voices continue to be left out of discussions of their own future. Taiwan is often spoken of in terms of the US and China, but not in terms of what its own people hope to see regarding their fate. This is what the rapid shift in the international discourse occludes — that Taiwan is still discussed as a geopolitical chess piece. Taiwan has its own government, military, economy, and free democratic elections. It possesses most of the hallmarks of being a nation-state, though Chinese territorial claims prevent its recognition by the majority of the international community. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never controlled Taiwan. Though the PRC claims to have inherited the territory during the Qing empire, Taiwan was only spuriously part of China in dynastic history, having been a province of the Qing for a mere seven years and a hinterland of the Ming.”

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WHAT’S ON TODAY

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Consent advocate Chanel Contos will talk about her new book, Consent Laid Bare, at Avid Reader bookshop.