Nuclear or go bust, Barnaby Joyce warns at Tamworth Business Chamber's 2022 state of the nation

That's the bold statement made by New England MP Barnaby Joyce at Tamworth Business Chamber's state of the nation in front of a crowd of about 100 people.

He used the event to take a swipe at Labor's plan to invest $20 billion to rewire the electricity grid throughout Australia in an effort to drive down prices, lower emissions and create jobs.

"We are now configuring our nation into chaos," he said.

"Germany is now bringing back online 21 coal fired power stations. We only have 18 in the whole of Australia. In England they're building massive new nuclear power plants.

"I want a sense of realness to come back into this debate. If you have this virtue that you want to legislate your nation to a 2030 target, or a 2050 target, then you must be prepared to pay the price at the till."

Mr Joyce claimed a small 77-megawatt modular reactor could power the whole of Tamworth and half of Armidale, and it could be "rolled in on the back of a truck".

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"They're now developing small nuclear reactors. Rolls-Royce is building a small modular reactor for the city of Leeds," he said.

"Why on earth are we not going nuclear? The thing about nuclear is it's 24-7 and has a 60-year lifespan.

"If you don't want coal, you've got to go nuclear otherwise we're going to go broke because the manufacturing will not stay here."

Mr Joyce also used the event to take a swipe at Labor's plan to put $166.6 billion into the NDIS and the disability sector, claiming the sector is over funded to the point where it will "collapse".

"We have one in every 10 kids apparently about to go on the NDIS. It was made for people in wheelchairs, people with schizophrenia and people who are paraplegics," he said.

"It's not made for all the people who are now using it. The taxpayer, through the NDIS, is paying for prostitutes... and pony rides."

The NDIS was introduced when Labor was last in government, and the party has committed to fully funding the scheme now that it's back in power.

It argues the NDIS funding will employ more than 270,000 and estimates that for every $1 billion the NDIS is underfunded, there is a drop in around 10,200 jobs.

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