Elon Musk backs Dick Smith’s savage attack on ABC fact checkers after blasting ‘lies’ about nuclear energy

Billionaire Elon Musk has joined Australian businessman Dick Smith to slam ABC fact checkers for spreading ‘lies and misinformation’ about nuclear energy.

Mr Smith, 80, last week told 2GB radio that Australia should switch to nuclear energy ‘now’ because a country cannot run ‘entirely on renewables’.

‘This claim by the CSIRO that you can run a whole country on solar and wind is simply a lie. It is not true, they are telling lies,’ he told Ben Fordham. 

‘No country has ever been able to run entirely on renewables, that’s impossible, and so we should be making a decision to go nuclear now.’ 

But the comments triggered ABC’s fact checking unit to claim four countries – Albania, Bhutan, Nepal and Paraguay – have been running 100 per cent on wind, solar and water since 2021. 

The response incensed Mr Smith who said he was furious to have been branded a liar by the fact checkers.

And on Monday, Mr Smith found an unlikely supporter in billionaire Elon Musk.

Dick Smith (pictured with his wife Pip) has blasted a ABC Fact Check report on nuclear energy

Mr Musk tweeted his distaste for the notion of government ‘fact-checkers’ on X on Monday 

The billionaire replied to a tweet from US columnist Michael Shellenberger about the report. 

Mr Shellenberger tweeted that ‘one of the government’s main fact-checker groups has been caught spreading misinformation about renewables and nuclear.’

Mr Musk replied: ‘Having government ‘fact-checkers’ is a giant leap in the direction of tyranny’.

‘It’s deeply disturbing Black Mirror s***,’ Mr Shellenberger agreed. 

Mr Smith has since demanded a correction to the Fact Check report, which came from a dedicated team at RMIT University and published on the ABC’s website on Friday night. 

‘It basically makes out I’m a liar,’ Mr Smith told The Australian. 

‘It’s damaging my credibility, and I’ve never had anything like this done to me before.’

Returning to 2GB on Monday, Mr Smith rubbished the report’s claims and accused the ABC of taking his comments out of context. 

He said Nepal had motor vehicles and transport running on fossil fuels and that many households burned wood – which results in a much higher carbon output.

The businessman has also rubbished claims made by sustainable energy expert University of New South Wales Mark Diesendorf in the report. 

‘Several countries (and Tasmania) already run their electricity systems on 100 per cent renewables,’ Mr Diesendorf stated, adding the state also used hydro power. 

Mr Smith said the expert only referred to electricity, while he had been talking about all forms of energy when he made his original statement. 

‘From my experience with the ABC, because they think they have to be left, they have to be against nuclear,’ he told 2GB radio on Monday. 

‘All of my left friends are all against nuclear, it’s sort of like a religion with them.

‘What the ABC has done is distort that just to look at electricity which is only 25 per cent of our problem. 

‘Our government and our scientists say we have to go to zero carbon. That’s all energy not just electricity.’

Mr Smith (pictured in 2017) has since demanded a correction to the Fact Check report

Billionaire Elon Musk owns X, previously known as Twitter, SpaceX and Tesla

The businessman also took issue with statements the ABC Fact Check published about California’s use of renewable energy. 

It stated California had been been running on ‘more than 100 per cent WWS (wind, water, sunlight) for 10 of the last 11 days for between 0.25 and 6 hours per day’.

Mr Smith said California was able to use renewable power because it was connected to the nuclear grid of Arizona and Washington State.

‘What they don’t say is that California is nuclear-powered, so it’s just completely dishonest,’ he said. ‘So in other words, they are proving what I’m saying is correct.’

An ABC spokeswoman defended the report in a statement, saying: ‘RMIT is committed to upholding the integrity of public information and stands by the accuracy of its work.’

ABC has announced plans to part ways with the fact checkers at Melbourne’s RMIT University after their contract ends at the end of the year. 

Last August, Facebook also ditched the RMIT FactLab following complaints about how it handled material on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.