The Libs apparent desire to change the subject on nuclear energy was reported in Crikey yesterday.  It's apparently seen as a problem in those electorates where power stations have been mooted, and Malcolm Turnbull has tried to turn the conversation around to clean coal technology.

Thanks to the marvels of Google, though, we can see that at least one Liberal MP - in a seat that's been discussed as the site for a plant - was boosting the nuclear option until very recently, but has since removed every instance of the word "nuclear" from his website.

On ABC North Queensland yesterday (23rd of October), it was reported that Peter Lindsay, member for Herbert,  denied having had a conversation with George Colbran, the Labor candidate, where he argued that nuclear power was the way forward for the North.

Fair enough - it's one man's word against another, and the precise details of a private conversation are always going to be difficult to confirm.

But one thing's for sure - Mr. Lindsay's website did carry a very detailed argument for the merits of nuclear power generation as recently as the 7th of July.

In an idle moment, I googled "Lindsay Herbert Nuclear" and the top link was to his site. When I clicked on the link, I was led to a page entitled "Where Peter Stands - Environment " But when I searched for the word "nuclear" on the page, it was nowhere to be found. There were just a couple of short paragraphs on the "solar city" project, solar panels and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

When I checked the cached page, though (which has been stored on the 7th of July, but may have been there later than this), there were long paragraphs of support for and discussion of nuclear energy.

You can see the screenshots here , courtesy of Barry Saunders, but the text in them includes Lindsay talking up "a mix over the century of clean coal, nuclear and renewables – some of which may take up to 50 years to develop a baseload capacity - but on which we must currently work".

Then there's a much longer, dot-pointed defence of the nuclear option, which culminates in Lindsay anticipating nuclear power as a potential election issue :  "in handling this issue we can see the difference between the two parties – a desire to solve the problem, as opposed to a desire to present a glib answer, which will ultimately fail to address our power needs."

The point here is that Lindsay made a clear and unambiguous defence of nuclear power as an option only a few short months ago, and has now made that defence "disappear" on his official website.  

If Australia is considering the introduction of nuclear power - and it may well be that it's a reasonable option - it should be on the table as an issue for debate in this election campaign. Moves like Lindsay's might reinforce the impression that the Government has expediently swept nuclear power under the carpet for the campaign season.

If we were being uncharitable, we might even wonder what light this information casts on his denials about that conversation in which Colbran alleges that he supported the adoption of nuclear power in the region.