'It's going to lose the election': new anti-nuclear campaign targets Liberal heartland

With an election to be called within weeks, a new group called Liberals Against Nuclear has emerged.

The television and video ads feature a middle-aged couple in their home speculating nuclear power could lead to higher power bills during a cost of living crisis.

"They need to cut the cost of living," the man is depicted as saying as he brushes his teeth in one ad.

"Who'd vote for a $665 electricity bill increase?" the woman responds, referring to an Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis report, as the couple listens to a news broadcast about the issue.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced in June 2024 plans to build seven nuclear power plants at existing coal-fired facilities at a cost of $330 billion if the Coalition won the next election.

Nuclear power is banned in Australia.

Of the seven federal electorates where a power plant is proposed, five are held by Nationals or Liberals, one is held by a Nationals MP-turned independent, and one is held by Labor.

Liberals Against Nuclear said it would run "targeted television advertising, digital content, and billboards questioning local members' support for nuclear" as part of the campaign.

It would not say which seats it would target or name other Liberals involved in the campaign.

Its public face is Andrew Gregson, a former director of the Tasmanian division of the Liberal Party and former chief executive of the NSW Irrigators' Council.

"If the Liberal Party takes this policy right through until polling day, it's going to lose the election," Mr Gregson told ACM, the publisher of this masthead.

He said the policy deviated from the Liberal principle of small government by committing taxpayers to big spending and risk.

In a statement, he echoed former NSW Liberal treasurer Matt Kean's public comments on the ABC in early March suggesting the party was being "socialist" in pursuing nuclear.

"Nuclear technology itself isn't the issue - it's the socialist implementation being proposed that trashes liberal values," Mr Gregson, who is not a current member of the Liberal Party, said.

"If nuclear energy is so good, then the market will back it without massive government intervention."

Aside from Matt Kean, another prominent Coalition-aligned individual to publicly question nuclear power is former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Former Liberal cabinet minister Christopher Pyne, now a lobbyist, and existing Nationals senator Matt Canavan have both suggested the policy is about politics, not reality.

A federal election must be held by May 17.