Even Labor Party veterans are sounding the alarm on Chris Bowen’s reckless energy transition. Writing in The Australian, former ACTU president and Labor MP Jennie George dismantled the spin around Labor’s climate policies, warning that the government’s targets are impossible and economically destructive.
George highlights the hollow promises that helped Labor into office: the $275 cut to household power bills, hundreds of thousands of “green jobs,” and modelling she notes was described as “the most comprehensive ever done, for any policy, by any opposition in Australia’s history since Federation.” But, as she points out, “when reality struck, it was quietly abandoned just before the election.”
The legislated 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 requires the grid to operate on 82 per cent renewables. George shows this to be fantasy, noting that “the renewables share averaged 41.6 per cent in the first quarter of the year, just halfway there.” Investment has collapsed, leaving taxpayers to underwrite projects “in secret contracts under the Capacity Investment Scheme.”
The costs, according to independent research George cites, are staggering. She quotes the Net Zero Australia report’s finding that “the modelled capital requirement $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion of commitments by 2030, and $7 trillion to $9 trillion by 2060 will not be met at the current rate; the gap is enormous.”
Meanwhile, the promised benefits have not materialised. Emissions have flatlined, industries like aluminium and steel are shrinking, and, as George warns, “our metals smelters and Tomago aluminium smelter in NSW are now at risk; thousands of workers face an uncertain future.”
She also highlights the delays and blowouts in critical transmission projects, describing them as “Snowy 2.0 on a grand scale.” The inevitable result, she says, is “a tsunami of transmission costs still to hit our power bills.”
George’s conclusion is devastating: “The priority of energy policy should be ensuring affordable and reliable power 24/7 in a sustainable energy mix; not chasing arbitrary targets, at any cost.”
Family First agrees. Australians are paying higher bills, losing industry, and watching regional communities suffer under the spread of industrial wind and solar. All this sacrifice is being made while Australia contributes just 1.1 per cent of global emissions.
Chris Bowen once admitted, “there’s no point setting a target which the country can’t meet.” Jennie George has reminded us of that truth. Family First says it is time to end this economic self-harm and return to a common-sense energy mix—coal, gas and nuclear—so families can once again enjoy affordable, reliable power.
The damage Net Zero is doing to cost of living and the broader economy will be a key focus at the Family Studies will address the topic Net Zero Truth. Registrations close at midnight on Sunday. Get your tickets here.