Interview with Josh Wilson MP – Nuclear Energy

Josh Wilson is the Member for Fremantle in the Federal Parliament. Since July this year, he has also been the Assistant Minister (to lead Minister, Chris Bowen) for Climate Change and Energy.In August this year, at the Australian Labor Party’s National Conference in Brisbane, Josh Wilson voiced his opposition to Australia’s signing up to the AUKUS deal with the US and the UK, involving the acquisition by Australia of nuclear powered submarines that will be rotated through HMAS Stirling at Garden Island, just across the Cockburn Sound from Fremantle.As David Crowe reported at the time in the Sydney Morning Herald, the ALP conference debate ‘highlighted the dissent within Labor branches over the shift to nuclear-powered submarines and the stronger alliance with the US, but it ended with a majority vote that endorsed the AUKUS pact with a standing ovation for the prime minister.’Josh Wilson is also a trenchant critic of the Federal Coalition Parties’ 12 June 2024 policy designed to add nuclear energy to the country’s civil energy mix, describing it as a ‘fantasy’ that ‘won’t add 1 watt of electricity inside of 10-15 years’.The editor of Fremantle Shipping News, Michael Barker, was pleased to catch up with Josh Wilson on 4 December 2024, to make the podcast below discussing nuclear power, both in powering Australian submarines and as a source of civil energy in Australia.You can read the full story on Fremantle Shipping News here.Support the show