‘Don’t care:’ Dutton clashes with ABC reporter

Peter Dutton has clashed with an ABC reporter, accusing the national broadcaster of having an “ideological position” against the Coalition’s election commitment to build seven nuclear reactors by 2050.

The Opposition Leader made the comments while speaking to reporters in Busselton, just more than 100km southwest of Collie, which has been flagged as a proposed reactor site.

The tense altercation occurred after the journalist said she had not seen Mr Dutton speak to a “single member of the public” despite claiming the majority of residents in Collie supported the Coalition’s nuclear strategy.

“Look, I understand the position of the ABC. The ABC has an ideological position against that. That’s an issue for you. I don’t really care,” he said.

“I’m not interested in the politics at the ABC. You can all be advocates and play your games.”

However, the reporter fought back against Mr Dutton’s claims and said she did not have any “bias”.

“I don’t have a bias. You might have a bias against the ABC. You can ask (Environment Minister) Chris Bowen the kind of questions I ask him, and I promise you I don’t,” she responded.

She then reiterated her question, asking Mr Dutton why he “hadn’t met with the people”, prompting another spray from the Opposition Leader.

“I think your advocacy position is fine … but when you’ve been employed by the ABC, I just think your job is to be impartial, and that’s not what you’re doing,” he said.

Mr Dutton’s comments follow an investigation from the ABC’s flagship current affairs program Four Corners that reported nuclear reactors used in Georgia, US, had inflated power bills by “hundreds of dollars”, going against Mr Dutton’s claims nuclear power would be cheaper. .

On Thursday night, a 90-minute meeting between residents in Collie and Mr Dutton was interrupted by anti-nuclear protesters, with reports from The West Australian claiming a local Indigenous woman was locked out of the event.

However Mr Dutton said it was a “very good, positive discussion” and accepted there would be objection to the plan.

“There will be people for and against different energy sources,” he said.

“Our responsibility is to make the decisions that are going to keep our economy strong into the future.”

Mr Dutton also announced that if elected, the Coalition would scrap Labor’s newly announced plans to build offshore wind farms off the coast of the Bunbury region, about 52km away from Busselton.