TO NUKE OR NOT TO NUKE: THE POLITICISATION OF ENERGY POLICY IN AUSTRALIA.

It’s a topic that has dominated Australian politics for nearly two decades now, and one that will continue to divide Australians and be used as an ideological boondoggle on both sides of politics: energy. Ever since Malcolm Turnbull was dumped as leader of the opposition in 2009 and replaced by Tony Abbott, who promised to reject the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, we have gone back and forth on models of what the future of our energy system should look like. Renewables. Coal, gas & other fossil fuels. Nuclear. Every future option, vision and system has been thrown around, with many largely detached from the realities that people face and the economics of energy in Australia.