Five years ago, the then federal agriculture minister David Littleproud joined his then boss, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, on a tour of the drought-affected regions of New South Wales and his home state of Queensland.

The Littleproud who in 2018 called for people to “Listen to the scientific evidence” and to base policy “On science not emotion” is long gone.

“We don’t need to rush this. We can plan properly and look at the emerging technology,” Littleproud told the rally.

The “Emerging” technology that Littleproud is now pushing, along with his current boss Peter Dutton, is nuclear - or, more specifically, Small Modular Reactors or SMRs. Just this week Dutton made the magical claim on Sky News that SMR technology is being used in 32 countries around the world, and can be simply plugged into existing grid infrastructure to replace coal-fired power stations.

SMRs are not currently operating at a grid or commercial scale anywhere in the world, and where the technology is being developed the first prototypes are targeting 2030 operation.