Doing the Country a Disservice

It’s been an interesting week in the news and if you are willing to push past the headlines, you’ll find most of what we’ve been told is smeared in a load of BS.

So let’s cut through the waffle and get to the real story behind the news.

First off, I am already fed up with the posturing coming from the government and the opposition.

After years of demonising coal, the government is now demanding our coal fired power stations stay online so we can have a stable and reliable electricity grid.

Here’s the new minister Madeleine King.

“In the very short term, what we really need to do is to have the coal power stations come back online because that is the missing piece of the puzzle right now.”

Incredible isn’t it?  

While King is telling the partial truth, we need coal over the short term, she avoids the reality that we need coal over the medium and long term too. To suggest otherwise is foolish and ignorant.

But that’s what politics has specialised in in recent years, foolishness, ignorance and political opportunism.

Both teams embraced the pipedream of net zero and have damaged our economic future as a result.

And then we’ve got this new found love of nuclear power by the newly minted opposition.

Here’s nationals leader David Littleproud pushing the Labor government to go nuclear.

We’ll hello…where have you been for the last decade when you were part of the government?

Why is it they find their mojo to pursue big policies when they are in no position to do anything about it?

The previous Liberal governments had every opportunity to push the case for nuclear and try to have the ban removed from the EPBC act when it was reviewed. They failed to do so.

In that failure, they squibbed a fight over the future of energy supply in this country and ruled out the only zero emissions base load power available.  It was cowardly and hopelessly myopic.

Even members of the Greens party in Finland are on board the nuclear power push. According to them ‘humanity no longer has the luxury of opposing nuclear power’

As for Australia’s Labor party, they too are scared witless by reality.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has ruled out nuclear because the ‘economics don’t stack up’ while lauding the compelling economics behind renewables.

“The reason that I am not keen on nuclear energy for Australia is because the economics don’t stack up,” he said.“Some of these cleaner and cheaper opportunities – the economics have become so compelling.”

What a load of old cobblers.

Firstly, allowing nuclear into the mix doesn’t mean a plant is going to be built. It just means it is an option, if the economics stack up. If they don’t then no-one will build one.

So Treasurer, show some fortitude that the Liberals didn’t  and remove the ban.

As to the economics of cleaner and cheaper opportunities, pull the other one.

The more supposed free energy we create ( from sun and wind) the more expensive and unreliable our power becomes. It’d be even worse if the billions in subsidies were removed.

That’s why new renewable projects don’t happen unless they get taxpayer money; the economics isn’t there.

And then they toss billions into things like ‘green hydrogen’. That’s an unproven dream that doesn’t stack up economically either.

Tell us again Treasurer that you aren’t ideologically opposed to nuclear but are only focused on the economics? Maybe someone, somewhere might even believe you.

But isn’t the current electricity crisis caused by gas restrictions?

Well that’s partially true. Governments across the country have made it difficult to exploit gas resources. That doesn’t mean we don’t have plenty of it, its just that governments have made a total mess of protecting us.

In Victoria, Dan Andrews put a ban on gas fracking in the State’s constitution. Apparently this was a result of demands by farmers and regional communities.

Former NSW Liberal Premier Mike Baird cancelled the gas exploration licence covering much of the Sydney Basin in 2015

South Australia’s Marshmallow government banned gas fracking in key parts of South Australia due to political pressure.

The Northern Territory government, that’s the broke mendicant northern territory, refuses to exploit huge gas reserves using all manner of excuses why they can’t.

You see the pattern here?

Politicians are actually the source of our problems.

They don’t care about the damage they do as long as there is a political advantage in every decision they make.

Left or right, blue, red or green, they have done this country a major disservice.