Australia the 'Dumb Country' - can we get lucky again?

A few short years ago, Australia was known as the Lucky Country; now in the eyes of the developed world, we are rapidly becoming the Dumb Country.

Much of that is down to the fact that our Labor Federal Government refuses to acknowledge the rest of the world's industrialised nations are rapidly embracing clean, reliable nuclear energy under bi-partisan agreements, while our leaders seem incapable of even having a rational debate about lifting the current totally irrational ban.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton, flanked by Nationals leader David Littleproud, Energy spokesman Ted O'Brien and Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor, last week finally released the long-awaited costings of their plan to integrate nuclear plants into the energy grid with a claimed 44 percent cost saving over Labor's rush to an unreliable renewables-only future.

The new independent analysis from Frontier Economics, which has previously produced reports for the Labor Government, revealed that including nuclear power in Australia's energy mix could save $263 billion, which aligns with a recent US Department of Energy's Nuclear Liftoff Report showing an estimated 37 percent cost reduction with nuclear.

Under the Coalition's plan, nuclear power could supply 38 percent of Australia's energy needs by 2050, together with 53 percent renewables, delivering reliable baseload power and significantly reducing emissions.

Meanwhile, we have bipartisan agreement to purchase eight nuclear submarines under the AUKUS agreement, which will be operated by Australian Navy personnel (who will eat, sleep and breathe alongside nuclear reactors for weeks at a time) any nuclear waste will be disposed of in Australia and the subs will be housed and serviced in Australian ports. No worries, all good, according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

We also have one of the world's largest uranium mines at South Australia's Roxby Downs and remain a significant exporter of uranium oxide ore to other countries who use nuclear energy.

But we don't do any processing to produce enriched uranium and fuel rods and we recently banned the development of further rich uranium deposits at Jabiluka in the Northern Territory after some opposition from local Aborigines and the usual woke lefties. They also see new gold and coal mines or gas developments just about anywhere as cardinal sins or death blows to mythical Rainbow Serpents and Blue-Banded Bees.

So, the reaction from Labor, Greens and Teals to the Coalition's costings came as no big surprise to anyone. Chris Bowen and Greens leader Adam Bandt were apparently singing from the same recycled renewables hymn sheet when they called it a "con job". Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek claimed the only person who believed nuclear energy would be cheaper was the Nationals' Barnaby Joyce, and the Teals seem to think it's all just an excuse to keep coal generation in the system longer. Education Minister Jason Clare said the nuclear plan would "last as long as a seafood milkshake".

Their contributions to rational debate were about as puerile and pathetic as the memes posted when the Coalition first announced their policy to include seven new nuclear plants at existing coal-fired power station sites and utilise existing transmission networks.

We were greeted with images of three-eyed fish and Blinkey Bill the Koala, along with warnings of how unsafe any move to nuclear energy would be.

Bowen says Australia should "stick to the plan" regarding renewables and "not isolate itself from the rest of the world by embracing nuclear, the dearest form of energy, which would take too long to establish".