Peter Dutton has just spent the last month hyping up a “major speech” about his one policy - nuclear reactors.
Today was the day.
Guess what - it didn’t contain a single costing, a single detail or a single piece of modelling.
It also didn’t contain a single good idea. But it did contain plenty of his usual lies…
Dutton said that Labor has a ‘renewables only’ policy, which is just wrong.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has consistently said that the lowest-cost way to deliver a secure and reliable grid over coming decades is a renewable grid with pumped hydro, batteries, flexible gas and transmission.
This is exactly the grid the Albanese Government, working with states, territories, industry and community is delivering with Rewiring the Nation, the expanded Capacity Investment Scheme, and the Gas Code.
Aging coal-fired generation is becoming more unreliable with increasingly frequent unplanned outages, and that the fleet has and will continue to retire earlier than originally announced.
Dutton brought up his favourite example of nuclear energy overseas: Ontario, Canada.
What he never tells you is that the Ontario Government subsidises electricity for their residents, to the tune of over $6 billion a year.
He also doesn’t tell you that Quebec, the state next door, has cheaper power, their bills are less than half what Ontario pays and 96% of their grid is powered by renewable energy.
A coalition of craziness: the Greens, Matt Canavan, One Nation and Ralph Babet just voted to disallow the gas code.
Luckily it failed, even after the LNP abstained from the vote to secure more gas for Australian consumers.
Here’s why it’s important:
The energy market operator and ACCC have warned that we will not have enough gas to power factories, generate power, cook and heat homes in 2027.
The Government’s gas code provides more affordable gas to the Australian market in the short to medium term and provides the energy security that Australia needs as we make the transformation to net zero emissions.
The woman in this photo is my great grandmother Magdalene McEnnally, who died aged 29, a few years after this wedding picture was taken. She was missed in my family for generations.
A thread....
In the flu pandemic of 1918, the rules were relaxed too soon. 12,000 Australians died in the second pandemic wave when we became complacent too soon. My great grandmother was one of them.
Everyone wants to see the current restrictions released as soon as they safely can be.
I know that some younger people may think that they won’t suffer badly if they are diagnosed with COVID-19.
But we have to learn the lessons of this pandemic & the pandemics that have come before.
Around the worldthere are plenty of fit and young people in intensive care