Dutton takes the nuclear option in pitch to small businesses

It’s a common refrain that small businesses are the engine room of the Australian economy, but Opposition leader Peter Dutton says nuclear power should be the engine room for small businesses.

Addressing the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) national summit on Wednesday, Dutton will highlight the Coalition’s push for nuclear energy in its pitch to the SME community.

“Energy is the one input cost that we can exert substantial influence over given our access to an abundance of natural energy sources,” Dutton will say, according to a transcript obtained by SmartCompany.

“But energy costs are only going to keep increasing under Labor,” he will continue, claiming the federal government’s 2030 renewables target — and its public disapproval of nuclear options — is “pure fantasy”.

Expanding on last year’s speech before the COSBOA summit, Dutton will claim continual gas power generation and the development of new nuclear reactors is a viable solution to Australia’s energy needs, specifically for the small businesses hardest hit by climbing power prices.

For its part, Labor has batted away nuclear power as a potential option, saying it is too expensive to build new generators and needless given Australia’s access to solar, wind, and hydroelectric energy.

“Why you would do [nuclear power] with these wonderful renewable resources in Australia is beyond me,” Environment Minister Chris Bowen told Sky News on Tuesday.

“Back-to-basics” on economics for small business

Beyond the Opposition’s push for nuclear energy, Dutton will accuse the federal government of policies stoking inflation and driving up prices for small business operators.

“A Coalition Government under my leadership will adopt a back-to-basics economic agenda.

“We will rein in inflationary spending.

“And we will have a policy for lower, simpler and fairer taxes,” he will say, without detailing the tax reforms a Dutton government would enact.

He said a Coalition government would avoid “regulatory roadblocks and stay off the backs of businesses”, claiming the latest rounds of industrial relations reforms will complicate hiring practices for employers.

And in a public call for support, Dutton will claim that business leaders are keen to lash the federal government in private, but are less keen to put their views on the record for “fear of a social media backlash.”

Minister for Small Business Julie Collins is set to combat some of those claims in a Wednesday evening address.