The South Australian Liberal party, which set the state’s first 100 per cent renewables target when in government six years ago, before embracing nuclear while in opposition, has reversed course again after the federal poll wipeout and the loss of a long time Liberal seat in Adelaide.
South Australia leads the world in the uptake of variable renewables, with a 72 per cent share of local demand over the last 12 months.
The then Liberal state government in 2019 set a target of reaching 100 per cent “net” renewables by 2030, before the current Labor government accelerated that target to 2027, and enshrined it into law, based on the planning for new wind and solar projects, battery storage and transmission.
New state Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia reversed course on renewables last year, supporting the federal Coalition’s plan to build nuclear power at seven sites across Australia, including at Port Augusta in South Australia, the site of the coal fired power stations that closed nearly a decade ago.
However, speaking to ABC Radio Adelaide, Tarzia has now backed away from his party’s election commitment to hold a Royal Commission into nuclear energy, saying it was clear that the technology has been “comprehensively rejected” by the electorate.
A potential nuclear future had been a top priority for the South Australian Liberal Party, promising in June last year to hold yet another Royal Commission into the technology. This was followed in August by the appointment of Stephen Patterson, the state MP for Morphett, as spokesman for Nuclear Readiness.
Tarzia’s comments came after the Liberals lost the last of their Adelaide based federal seats, including the once safe seat of Sturt, in last weekend’s federal election campaign.
The South Australian Labor Party was quick to jump on Tarzia’s comments, with Tom Koutsantonis, the state minister for energy and mining, asking what the opposition party actually stands for.
“They’re breaking election promises even before they’ve got to an election,” said Koutsantonis.
“Only a few months ago, they were making the pursuit of nuclear energy their sole energy policy focus. Now, they’ve dumped it. Vincent Tarzia must now dump his Shadow Minister for Nuclear Readiness, who has absolutely no policy offering other than the pursuit of an energy source that evidence shows will drive up bills for South Australians.
“At a time when the Opposition should be outlining its policy platform ahead of the 2026 State Election, the State Liberals are instead ditching their only energy policy.”
Peter Dutton’s national nuclear dream had already been discredited by Australia’s leading science agency, the CSIRO, in its draft GenCost 2024-25 report published at the end of 2024. T
he report, which provides an economic analysis of the cost of building various energy projects around the country, found that nuclear was not “economically competitive” with renewable energy technologies like solar PV and wind, and that the total development time in Australia for large or small-scale nuclear would be “at least 15 years.”
Similarly, however, a 2016 Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission had already determined that nuclear power was not commercially viable in South Australia.
