It is taken lower than 24 hours for the infantile scare marketing campaign round Peter Dutton’s nuclear power coverage to flood social media.
I am not speaking about posts by the common consumer. Federal and state Labor leaders and the union motion shortly started posting inconceivable and downright ridiculous methods to attempt to undermine nuclear energy.
Deformed pets, references to The Simpsons, poisonous spills inflicting three-eyed fish and pictures suggesting the websites is perhaps situated close to iconic pure wonders akin to Victoria’s Twelve Apostles have been simply among the immature video games being performed by parliamentarians.
I did say yesterday that the mom of all scare campaigns would quickly begin however I did not assume it could be fairly this pathetic.
The Australian Union motion urged the household canine would turn into deformed on account of Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy proposal
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan’s workforce produced this Simpsons-inspired meme – with Ms Allan slamming nuclear energy as ‘poisonous’
It is not as if there aren’t critical issues with Dutton’s announcement – I will come to these shortly.
Victoria’s new premier Jacinta Allan, no much less, posted mocked up pictures of three-eyed cartoon fish leaping out of the water in Gippsland, writing: ‘The Liberal Celebration desire a poisonous and costly nuclear reactor in Gippsland.’
Anthony Albanese’s contribution wasn’t a lot better: ‘As a substitute of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, that is Peter Dutton and the seven nuclear reactors’.
I’m wondering how lengthy it took the PM’s taxpayer funded workforce of 11 media advisers to provide you with that one. Or did Albo proudly assume it up all on his personal?
Seizing upon The Simpsons theme, Victorian federal MP Josh Burns tweeted pictures of nuclear reactors with the Liberal Celebration brand on them, writing ‘underneath Peter Dutton Australians will glow inexperienced’.
Intelligent stuff.
At 62 years of age Labor MP for the Victorian seat of Corangamite, Libby Cocker, wasn’t too mature to take the same dig, days earlier than Dutton’s announcement.
The federal Victorian MP riffed off the ‘the place the bloody hell are you’ tourism marketing campaign of yesteryear spearheaded by Lara Bingle.
Cocker, who was a faculty instructor earlier than coming into politics, tweeted a mock up of a bikini-clad Bingle standing in entrance of the 12 Apostles on the Victorian shoreline with three nuclear reactors billowing smoke behind her.
There actually should be one thing within the water in Victoria – earlier than the nuclear waste arrives as is being alleged.
The Simpsons references have been operating thick and quick
The Australian Manufacturing Employees Union shared a picture of a Chernobyl-style dystopia
The Australian union actions official X web page posted a picture of a deformed one thing or one other, it was onerous to inform, above the headline ‘this might be your loved ones canine’.
Scare campaigns are hardly ever rooted in accuracy, and that could be a bipartisan downside. However they’re hardly ever this infantile in nature.
It will likely be attention-grabbing to see if these callow MPs and vested pursuits proceed to behave this fashion, or sharpen up their assaults within the weeks and months forward.
Historical past tells us that scare campaigns work, particularly in opposition to huge daring coverage concepts raised by Oppositions. However do they work when they’re this low forehead?
Earlier than Dutton revealed the place the reactors could be positioned, Labor MP Libby Coker shared this meme, impressed by Lara Bingle’s well-known Tourism Australia advert
As talked about earlier on, if anybody desires to significantly critique Dutton’s coverage there’s a lot to dig into with out having to resort to juvenile antics.
For instance, Dutton says he plans to make use of present coal fired energy websites and the federal government pays for and personal the operations. However many of the non-public homeowners of those websites have already dominated out relinquishing them to a Coalition authorities, and so they weren’t consulted earlier than the coverage was introduced.
Many of the websites Dutton has introduced are in states which have legislatively banned nuclear energy, and quite a lot of these Premiers have already dominated out altering that.
The coverage hasn’t been costed, a lot much less modelled to establish what taxpayers is perhaps up for if or when building was to start.
We do not even know who the Coalition engaged to supply this coverage. Is it rooted in any scholarly analysis past a superficial thought bubble announcement?
We’re additionally nonetheless at nighttime about which varieties of nuclear reactors the Opposition is proposing to construct: the brand new smaller modules or the extra established bigger varieties utilized in different elements of the world? It’s a fairly primary alternative to not be included in a significant coverage announcement.
So sure, there are critical questions for critical folks to boost requiring critical solutions earlier than Workforce Dutton can anticipate Australians to get behind his proposal.
Sadly the Labor authorities and its union mates appear largely incapable of reaching excessive and correctly difficult the coverage announcement.
As a substitute they select to play within the sandpit on social media.
No surprise the general public has such a dim view of the political class.
