“I believe that if your priority is to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, then nuclear power must be in the mix,” the deputy Liberal leader told Sky TV’s Australian Agenda program.
Australia did not need to embrace nuclear power at present because it was still reliant on coal, Ms Bishop said.
“I think it’s fair to say that trying to suggest that renewables are going to replace baseload power is nonsense. Our economy was built on cheap and plentiful electricity based on coal-fired power generation. And until such time as there is a baseload low-emissions alternative, we will continue to rely on coal as the basis of our economics.
“If the carbon tax taxes the coal industry out of existence, we will have to find an alternative baseload low-emission technology, and that’s nuclear power.
“I thought I’d said that ever since I was the (Howard government) science minister. I’ve been consistent on this issue.”
Ms Bishop said all G20 economies barring Australia had nuclear power as a component of their energy needs.
“Let’s face it, the political reality is until there is bipartisan support for it, the debate won’t proceed.”
Ms Bishop said there were signs of acceptance within the Labor Party, from Energy Minister Martin Ferguson and others, that nuclear power was a reality in much of the rest of the world. “France, for example, gets 80 per cent of its power capacity from nuclear. No wonder it has a small carbon footprint.”
Ms Bishop said she didn’t believe Julia Gillard had the authority within the Labor Party to rule anything in or out and the Coalition was trying to break down Labor’s hostility to issues such as selling Australian uranium to India.
India was a major emitter of carbon pollution and was looking to nuclear power as a way to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, she said. Australia should provide the uranium India needed.
To call on countries such as India to reduce their global greenhouse gas emission contribution while denying them the very resource they need in order to do that was hypocrisy, she said. “I think we’ll see a shift.”
Ms Bishop said that while the Prime Minister had ruled out nuclear power, WikiLeaks had indicated that Mr. Ferguson had another strategy within Labor to enable uranium to be sold to India.
“And I expect that’s the same with nuclear power.”
