Premier's nuclear push is proof of a government in meltdown

In its push to fast-track a faltering uranium sector the government has ignored long- standing community concerns, heartfelt pleas from remote affected communities under threat and any real-world assessment of the flatlining global uranium market conditions.

A very real risk is that any one of the four proposed uranium mines get rushed through for political reasons only to fail the market test. This would see mines put into care and maintenance, companies going into administration and WA tax payers footing the bill for rehabilitating contaminated sites and the Premier's failed atomic agenda.

We need to change the way we produce and use energy and we need to do so urgently. But the energy future is not radioactive – it is renewable and WA has a key role to play and a massive opportunity to grasp. Today renewable energy is clearly the world's fastest growing energy sector – contributing more than double the amount of electricity as nuclear and doing it in a cheaper, cleaner and much more rapidly deployable fashion.

WA could be in the vanguard of the energy of the 21^st Century, rather than trying to climb aboard the sinking nuclear ship. If Premier Barnett wants to go nuclear then its time he embraced solar – the fundamental power of the planet that is derived from an existing – and suitably distant – nuclear process. This is the way to grow skills and jobs and to keep the lights on and the Geiger counters off.

Talk of uranium mining and domestic nuclear power plants is, at best, a dangerous distraction from meeting our real and pressing energy challenges. It's time to move on from the failed promises of nuclear and the era of dirty coal and uranium and get committed and cracking on building a secure and sustainable energy future.

With a state election around the corner it is time for all candidates to understand that support for clean renewable power will increasingly be a community pre-condition for access to political power.