Family First supports the aims of the Reckless Renewables movement which rallied outside Parliament House in Canberra this week.
However, it was telling that Coalition figures present were keen to keep the issue to the destruction windmills and solar panels wreak on the environment.
Nationals Leader David Littleproud and even Barnaby Joyce did not want the conversation to stray to the issue of Coalition’s support for net zero policies, which is a big part of the reason the landscape is being blighted.
They were embarrassed when people at the rally called on the Coalition to abandon net zero.
Family First believes net zero should be paused until there is a proper cost-benefit analysis of the economics and engineering of upending what used to be one of the cheapest and most reliable electricity generation systems in the world.
If this happened, it is highly unlikely energy policy would continue in the direction set by Coalition and Labor governments.
It is clear windmills and solar panels cannot provide reliable and affordable electricity. Battery technology for powering cities does not exist.
The more coal and gas removed from the system the more vulnerable Australia’s economy becomes.
Net-zero driven electricity price hikes are a major factor in the inflation which is currently crippling household budgets.
Instead of robbing the rich to pay those struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, governments should be focussed on leveraging Australia’s competitive advantage in coal, gas and nuclear energy.
If Australia’s carbon dioxide emissions, which are less then 1.4 percent of global emissions truly are a threat to the climate, then the transition should be to emissions-free nuclear energy – not solar panels and windmills.
Family First does not often agree with Labor’s Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong but she was not wrong when she called out the Coalition’s hypocrisy.
The Australian reported that she “told protesters who came into the Senate gallery during question time that the Nationals had backed many renewables projects in the past and to remember that ‘when they come to your rallies and tell you how much of a friend they are’.”
It was the Liberals and Nationals who put Scott Morrison on the plane to Glasgow in 2021 where the nation was signed up to the UN’s net zero agreement – a monumental mistake which has only driven up the cost of living.
The Australian reported:
“Mr Littleproud defended the party’s support for net zero and said that if the Coalition had not signed up, primary producers would have faced export controls from countries around the world declaring they would not do business with nations lacking strong climate commitments.
‘We have to understand we’re an export nation and we don’t get to set all the international trading rules,’ he said.”
There are many countries, including China and India that are not signed up to net zero.
Australian Coalition politicians should not have so meekly sold our nation’s sovereignty to something that is clearly not in the national interest.