Suicidal Tendencies: Australia’s Energy Policy Designed to Destroy Industry, Business & Jobs

Endangered species: aluminium smelting jobs the next to go.

Even before the coronavirus lockdowns, Australian business was under threat from rocketing power prices and an unreliable supply, thanks an obsession with subsidised wind and solar.

At a time when every industry and business is looking for some sign of sense and reason from policymakers, instead of delivering a raft of policies that just might keep these enterprises afloat, the Morrison government have headed straight to the periphery.

Rather than create opportunities for base-load power generation (whether by preserving existing coal-fired power plants, building new High Efficiency Low Emissions plants or scrapping the ban on nuclear power generation), the Liberal/National Coalition continue to waffle about pumped hydro and battery storage and are giving credence to the most ridiculous concept of all: turning wind and solar power into hydrogen gas. An economic nonsense, if ever there was one.

In Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales the level of energy market illiteracy is gobsmacking. Run by a notionally conservative Liberal/National coalition, the State government sounds more like it’s been hijacked by lunatics from the hard-green-left.

NSW is one of the few Australian states with any kind of heavy industry still operating, including mineral processors such as the Tomago aluminium smelter (see above).

Those kinds of jobs are already precarious, thanks to power prices which are now among the highest in the world and an inability to deliver it as and when those businesses need it, whenever the sun sets and/or calm weather sets in.

With policies directed at more subsidies for wind and solar that can only increase power prices and make an already unreliable supply even more so, energy hungry businesses and industries will simply shut up shop and those jobs will be lost, forever.

It’s a subject matter that has former Labor leader, and now One Nation’s NSW leader Mark Latham in a mixed state of bewilderment and frustration at what’s being done to his state.

Here he is being interviewed by 2GB’s Alan Jones and one of Alan’s last broadcasts for that radio station, as he hangs up his gloves and heads for retirement.

STT wishes to note our appreciation for the tireless support that Alan Jones has given in the battle against the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time. Alan had the good grace and temerity to appear and host the National Rally on the steps of Parliament House in Canberra, that turned heads back in June 2013.

Since then, Alan has been a champion for rural people set upon by wind industry goons and thugs – going head to head with the characters that run outfits like AGL and Infigen.

And he’s been true a champion for the poorest and most vulnerable in society who, thanks to our obscene energy policies, can no longer afford electricity and the dignity it might otherwise afford them.

STT’s pages carry dozens of posts of Alan Jones’ work, whether as a radio broadcaster on 2GB or commentator on SkyNews. Pop his name in the search bar to the top right of the page and you’ll find them.

Alan, there are probably only two words that we can use that go anywhere near expressing our gratitude for your work and your dedication to Australia’s forgotten people: thank you.

On that note, we’ll hand over to Alan and his interview with Mark Latham.

Mark Latham slams NSW government’s energy policy
2GB
Alan Jones and Mark Latham
27 May 2020

Transcript

Alan Jones: Just turn the page here. And you’ve been making a point, which we may not get time to cover in detail here, that now the road to economic recovery, if you listen to some of them, lies in renewable energy. And you have said and written, “Every green activist and two bit celebrity is parroting this line from their 10 bedroom mansions with carbon footprints the size of Paramatta, if only Australia would invest billions of dollars that we don’t have in wind power and solar power, we’d be back in full employment.” I mean, this nonsense is upon us again.

Mark Latham: It is, yes. The mantra. You’ll hear people talking about the capacity to export renewable energy, which is a nonsense. You’ll hear all sorts of rent seeking programs and requests for government money from the green sector. But the verdict is in, Alan. We don’t have to have speculation about it. In March, the New South Wales Energy Minister and Environment Minister, Matt Kean, put out his Net Zero Plan Stage 1: 2020 to 2030. And what it revealed in spending $2 billion of taxpayer’s money, that over the next 10 years, all these green schemes, he’s announced here a list of green schemes as long as your arm-

Alan Jones: It is as long as your arm, yep.

Mark Latham: … 2,400 jobs. That’s it.

Alan Jones: 10 years.

Mark Latham: That’s 2400 jobs, 240 jobs per annum. Now, there is barely a job in green energy. 240 jobs per annum is an embarrassment, particularly when you’ve got 75,000 coal reliant jobs in the Hunter Valley that are jeopardised by the move towards green energy. So why would any government in their right mind jeopardise 75,000 jobs in the Hunter Valley alone, for the sake of 240 jobs per annum? So we don’t need the speculation. We don’t need academics wasting their time writing papers. We don’t need renewable energy companies putting their hands out for government money. The verdict is in, and the economic recovery does not lie in green energy.

Alan Jones: No, I mean, you make a further point though. It’s not just the coal industry and the 75,000 jobs in the Hunter Valley, because major, you’ve made this point. International manufacturing companies are refusing to invest in Australia because we can’t guarantee to keep the lights on.

Mark Latham: Well, that’s right. I sat on the Parliamentary Inquiry about the ban on nuclear energy in New South Wales, and we had everyone from business groups to the AWU saying we’re losing jobs already. Manufacturing won’t come to Australia. The investment won’t come here because we can’t guarantee reliable energy at a decent price.

Now, what Scott Morrison should have announced yesterday is the Australian disease where we’ve got many more restrictions on energy supply in this country than energy permits. And he should have said, “We need to be a global energy superpower with flourishing coal power, gas fired power, nuclear, renewables, if they can cut it.”

And that should be the Australian direction. You don’t need green energy. The economic recovery would rely in literally powering up the Australian economy to become a global energy superpower-

Alan Jones: Which it was.

Mark Latham: … which we’ve got in the ground. What sort of country in a deep recession has got the capacity to do these things, to generate jobs and leaves the stuff in the ground?

Alan Jones: Absolutely. You made the point that there is no… This is staggering. “There is no proven,” Marcus said, “cost viable technology for mass battery storage.” And you quote the head of AGL, Brett Redman, trying to quantify the battery storage task for a 100% renewable Australian economy. Quote, “It would require an extraordinary 350,000 shipping containers filled to the roof with batteries, if laid end on end, they’d stretch from Sydney to Perth and into the Indian Ocean.” Well, that’s not going to happen, hey Mark?

Mark Latham: Well, they say follow the science. This is science fiction. On Q&A on Monday night, you had silly Lucy Turnbull saying the age of the battery is upon us. Well, that Redman quote demonstrates just the fantasy world in which these people live. The age of the battery world is upon it. You need enough batteries, you put them in shipping containers, you lay them out end on end. It goes from Sydney to Perth and into the Indian Ocean. That’s Lucy Turnbull’s world. What sort of fools are we dealing with here?

Alan Jones: Well, I think you’ve answered what sort of fools. You’ve said, “All those flower children dancing through the fields, worshipping the sun and the wind are actually part of a rent seeker’s picnic.” Mark, thank you for your tremendous contributions. You and I’ll keep in touch. We value it enormously, and we’ll talk to you soon.

Mark Latham: Good on you, Alan, all the best.

Alan Jones: There he is. Thank you, Mark Latham.
2GB

The dole queue: where Australia’s energy policy is bound to take you.