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Energy – and specifically the opposition’s announcement on nuclear energy last week – have dominated the first hour of Question Time this afternoon, with the government lambasting the plan as “economic insanity” and a “fantasy that will never happen”.

The Coalition revealed seven nuclear plants would be built at the sites of former coal power plants: Lithgow and the Hunter Valley in NSW, Loy Yang in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Collie in Western Australia and Port Augusta in South Australia.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said that of the seven sites Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced last week that of the seven sites where nuclear power stations would operate if the Coalition is re-elected, the owners of six had rejected the idea.

“So Mr. Speaker, the policy failed at the first hurdle,” Bowen said, who also lashed the opposition for not making public costings for their proposal.

Earlier, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said pursuing nuclear energy would be more expensive than pursuing renewable energy.

“When the rest of us are working to get power bills down, he’s picked the one option guaranteed to force prices up,” he said, adding another jibe that Dutton’s “anger and negativity” could be also harnessed as a renewable energy.

Minister for the Environment Tanya Plibersek has also joined in the pile-on.

“They [the Opposition] were told during their time in government that 24 coal fired power stations were closing, and how did they prepare for that? Well, the answer is they didn’t, they had almost a decade to prepare,” she said.

“Nuclear energy is expensive. It’s getting more expensive all the time. Renewables are already cheaper and they are getting cheaper all the time. There is a reason that more than 3 million Australian households have put solar on the roof. It’s because it’s cheaper.”