One Nation commits to coal-fired power and lifting nuclear ban in Victoria - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

One Nation has committed to supporting coal-fired power stations and lifting Victoria's ban on nuclear energy if elected. The party's policy platform calls for retention and investment in existing coal capacity alongside new nuclear construction. This marks a departure from the major parties' trajectory toward an all-renewable grid, though neither major party has moved to repeal Australia's nuclear prohibition at the federal level.

Where this fits

One Nation is naming the core problem Energy Realism identifies: a renewables-only grid cannot replace both coal's firmness and its energy density without either massive gas firming (ongoing emissions and cost) or nuclear (banned). By coupling coal retention with nuclear permission, the party has identified that firm dispatchable power is the missing piece in the transition narrative. The policy touches on cost (coal plants exist; new nuclear takes years and capital), reliability (both are dispatchable; renewables are not), and sovereignty (nuclear fuel can be sourced outside China; panels, batteries and inverters cannot).

What it means

If executed, the policy would extend coal's life in the grid beyond the current retirement schedule and open a legal pathway to nuclear that does not exist today. This is a direct challenge to the bipartisan commitment to phase out coal by 2030, 2050 and the federal prohibition on nuclear generation. Whether One Nation gains the leverage to reshape energy law, this intervention signals that the cost and reliability crisis of a weather-dependent grid is now visible enough to pull major political alternatives into the frame. The hard question remains: Australia can build new firm power from either coal (expensive, stranded assets, political fragility) or nuclear (banned, long lead time, capital intensity). Choosing neither has locked the grid into gas dependence and China's battery and panel supply chain as the transition backbone.