National Rally Against Reckless Renewables: Australians Demand Nuclear Power ASAP

Last Tuesday, more than 1,000 Australians marched on Canberra with a simple demand. Australia needs nuclear power ASAP. A lineup of top-flight speakers, including politicians, farmers and hard-core environmentalists (who have turned into the fiercest critics of subsidised wind and solar), backed by a very vocal crowd, laid out the truth about the great wind and solar fraud.

However, rather than the usual guff about better planning, better siting, and better community consultation (the stuff that earns the cry of NIMBY from the wind and solar cult), almost every speaker made it plain that the only way to fix the unfolding wind and solar fixated catastrophe, is to scrap the ban on nuclear power generation and start building nuclear plants alongside our remaining coal-fired power plants.

As numerous speakers rightly emphasised, placing clean, safe and reliable nuclear plants on the sites occupied by coal-fired plants does away with the need for the tens of thousands of kilometres of transmission grid and state to state interconnectors which are part and parcel of Australia’s grand wind and solar rollout.

What was notable, if not remarkable, was the voluble approval from the thousand strong crowd every time nuclear power was proffered as a solution to Australia’s current ludicrous energy debacle.

Standouts included Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a Country Liberal Party Senator from the Northern Territory.

As the opposition’s Indigenous affairs spokeswoman, Senator Price came to commendable prominence during last year’s federal referendum on a racially-based Voice to Parliament. The Voice – said to be an opportunity to ‘hear’ Aboriginal political demands – was put forward by radical left-wing activists and soon revealed itself as a neo-Marxist power grab, based on racial division, and the rage and resentment of a few seasoned academics and activists.

The referendum failed spectacularly; its proponents failed to obtain a majority in any State; and more than 62% of Australian voters voted against it.

Senator Price, a woman with her own distinct Aboriginal ancestry on her mother’s side, was one of the leading critics of the Voice. Price emerged as both an eloquent and passionate defender of the principle of true (colour blind) equality.

In her speech last Tuesday, Senator Price once again presented as a politician driven by her duty to Australians, especially those in the regions – the people who always get on and produce and who rarely grumble. Here’s the audio, transcript follows.

Transcript
Jacinta Price: What a wonderful crowd of true blue Aussies. I want to begin by thanking each and every one of you for coming here today so that your voices from throughout regional Australia can be heard by those who need to listen the most.

I want to thank the National Rational Energy Network for putting on this rally today. As we’ve heard from Mr. Parker, it is common sense to go down the road of nuclear. It is common sense, which is what the Australian people want when it comes to many issues. And right now, particularly energy. I love this country. I know each and every one of you love this country. You are the custodians of our land.

You know better than anybody, the importance of taking care of our natural environment. You know better than anybody what it means to provide from the regions, for the entire nation, for the Australian people, for those in the inner cities. We hear this term renewable energy a lot. We see a lot of people get very excited about this notion, but know very little about what it means, the impact that it has on our country, on our regions.

The fact that you feel it, you understand it, you know it. You’ve had to come all the way to Canberra to be heard. Yet it is you people who have voted for us here in Parliament, your parliamentary leaders. And we should be listening to you. But where is our prime minister and where is Mr. Bowen? They should be here. They should have consulted you, the Australian people. They talk about community consultations as being so important to them across many various issues.

But have they consulted you? No, they haven’t. Have they listened to you as to how renewable energy, wind turbines, solar farms are going to impact your lives, your land, our land, and furthermore, all Australians? The Prime Minister, promised Australians a reduction in our energy bills of $275. How did he think he was going to achieve that with renewable energy? He hasn’t and he won’t.

I had the wonderful privilege throughout January of driving across our beautiful, vast land. I did a hell of a lot of flying last year and I was just sick of it so I had to jump in the car. I drove from Alice Springs with the husband, across the Barkley, over to the Sunshine Coast, stayed with friends and family there. Made our way to Toowoomba, stayed with friends and family there. To Tamworth, stayed with wonderful people in Tamworth. There they are there. Thanks, Liz and Ian for your hospitality. And I got to hear from people, everyday Australians about their concerns about what this means for them, what renewable energy means for them in the regions. And as I left Tamworth, I drove to Broken Hill and then through to Coober Pedy. And nothing angered me more than the site of wind turbines. Especially after hearing from regional Australians about what it means to clear their land, what it means to have to dispose of these horrible eyesores once they’ve come to the end of their life. The fact that they don’t produce reliable energy. They only produce energy slightly when the wind blows. But when the sun’s out, well, the wind’s not blowing now and the sun’s not out now, is it?

Crowd: No. That’s why coal works.

Jacinta Price: Nuclear energy is certainly the direction we need to go. And I know that Australians want this. We hear the words clean and green put together a hell of a lot. But I don’t think that renewable energy is as clean and as green as many would like to make out it to be. Certainly nuclear is. I’m here to listen to everyone. Thank you so much. Prime Minister Albanese. You need to listen to these people. You need to listen to these people.

To stop taking us down the path of destruction because it will impact, it is impacting every single Australian. And it’s high time certainly the inner cities started listening to the regions. It’s high time many of our politicians started listening to the regions. It is regional Australia that is the heart of this country that keeps this country thriving.

Thank you once again. I’ll be making sure that I go back to my party rooms and to the floor of the Senate and to continue to argue and to fight for what is right for our country. And thank you for all your wonderful effort here today.
YouTube

The first article from The Australian below, covers a little of Senator Price’s speech.

Although, curiously enough, but typical of the legacy media, The Australian manages to completely omit any reference at all to Senator Price’s timely and sensible call for nuclear power; nor does it note the crowd’s loud and enthusiastic support for the Senator’s call for nuclear power. Sometimes is not what they choose to publish, it’s what they choose not to publish that makes all the difference.

Senator Price was joined by numerous others and, in the balance of the post, we pick up pieces from one of the speakers, Malcolm Roberts, and another from Eric Worall. In the final piece we extract an interview by Chris Kenny with another of the speakers, Peter Ridd.

The takeaway from the rally is that ordinary Australians understand power generation a whole lot better than those in power.

Jacinta Price, Barnaby Joyce join angry farmers in anti-renewables rally outside Parliament House
The Australian
Eleanor Campbell
6 February 2024

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has marked her return to Parliament with a fiery speech against the government’s renewables push.

The opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman was welcomed at the farmers’ rally by a cheering crowd outside of Parliament House on Tuesday.

“You are the custodians of our land. You know better than anybody the importance of taking care of our country,” she told the farmers.

“We should be listening to you. But where is our prime minister and where is Mr (Climate and Energy minister Chris) Bowen? They should have been here. They should have consulted you.”

Senator Price told the roaring crowd, who were protesting against the government’s renewables target of 82 per cent by 2030, she had heard concerns from regional citizens during a road trip with her husband over Christmas.

“I drove to Broken Hill and through to Coober Pedy and nothing angered me more than the sight of wind turbines. Especially after hearing from regional Australians about what it means to clear their land, what it means to have to dispose of these horrible eyesores” Senator Price said.

“The fact that they don’t produce reliable energy. They only produce energy .. slightly .. when the wind blows.

“But the wind’s not blowing now and the sun’s not out now, is it?”

More than 500 people [STT’s operatives – farmers who know how to count their livestock on the run – put the number at well over 1,000] attended Tuesday’s rally, with many calling for a suspension of wind and solar farms and an inquiry into Australia’s clean energy rollout.

Some farmers expressed their frustrations over plans to build hydro power plants across agricultural and rainforest territory.

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce, who attended with his former staffer and wife Vikki Campion told the rally that the new construction of wind and solar farms would risk killing off protected wildlife.

“How can that possibly be of environment benefit? To kill wildlife? But on top of that .. it’s a swindle. It’s a massive multinational swindle underpinned by your taxpayer dollars,” he said.

Former MP Craig Kelly declared Labor’s renewables policy as a “betrayal for our nation.”

“We have men like blackout [Chris] Bowen that wants to close down the remaining 21 gigawatts we have while China is building six times more,” Mr Kelly said.

“We must get rid of net zero.”
The Australian

Power to the people: the National Rally Against Reckless Renewables
Spectator Australia
Malcolm Roberts
7 February 2024

One Nation Leader, Pauline Hanson, spoke at the National Rally Against Reckless Renewables on the lawn in front of Parliament House in Canberra.

She did so to a roar of cheers. The crowd had been standing there agitating for hours, listening to speeches from political figures, commentators, and Australians whose lives are being ruined by the inner-city delusion of ‘green energy’.

Out of sight, out of mind, and cold of heart. That is how the renewable energy conversation has been conducted.

That debate is not over.

Renewable energy is facing failure on a number of fronts, not least of which is merit. Engineers and energy regulators – even those who were once enthusiastic about solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries – are showing signs of nervousness. The lights are flickering. The costs are mounting. And globally, raw materials are running short.

But the real disaster is public opinion. The ‘not in my backyard’ philosophy, originally written off as few disgruntled farmers and ‘privileged’ coastal tourist communities, has transitioned into one almighty public vibe shouting, ‘Not in our country!’

We understand that many Australians were caught up in the romantic marketing slogans of renewable energy. They believed the propaganda of endless rainforests, pristine coastal vistas, and lush fields. Those Australians no longer believe in Labor’s lies. Not now that they have seen the reality on their doorstep. Chris Bowen’s vision for a Net Zero Australia has hacked the country apart. Private property? There is no such thing. Protected wilderness? Not anymore.

Net Zero propaganda is an abuse of the public’s good faith and a manipulation of our natural inclination to care for the land. If you ask someone if they want to save the world, of course they will say yes. Those people have been conned into a wasteful and damaging future by a political class that cares more about a pat on the back from the United Nations than it does about preserving the beauty of the Australian landscape and the security of our energy independence.

At the last election, no one said Net Zero would involve bulldozing rainforests, cluttering our ocean views, or draping power lines between thousands of kilometres of transmission towers. No one told farmers their sheep would be knocking their heads on solar panels, that koalas would be bludgeoned to death if they got in the way of wind farms, or that people would be driven mad by the relentless noise coming from sky-scraper-sized turbines.

Renewables are turning into a national nightmare, and Bowen has a growing list of court cases to prove it. He also has a rally on the front lawn of Parliament, demanding answers.

‘Why don’t I keep the bastards honest? Because I want to get rid of the bastards,’ said Ms Hanson. The crowd cheered again. If the election was run today, Labor would be in trouble.

Senator Hanson makes a good point. Like politicians, there are some ideas beyond redemption, and the Net Zero industry is chief among them.

She called for the political class to be held to account while Parliament lingered in the background – a physical manifestation of politics sitting atop its mound like some concrete crown on a monstrous socialist bureaucracy.

‘We have been led like fools to the slaughter because you trusted politicians to do the right thing by you…’

As Ms Hanson said during her speech, as a Senator, I am hungry to debate the Greens on the issue of Net Zero, but they did not have the stomach to take a short stroll across the Canberra lawn to defend wind turbines and solar panels. The Greens will not meet me in the battle of ideas, let alone face the crowd and answer questions about the Utopian technology that is meant to save the world. Can you imagine the proud creator of any other product refusing to meet their customers? Unless, of course, those customers were angry about a faulty, dangerous product.

Why are the Greens hiding?

Why aren’t they facing the crowds?

This country is being carved up by foreign corporations and stitched back together by the Canberra bureaucrats whose fascist duplicity can be seen in the ugly power-lines draped from paddock-to-paddock.

There will be more rallies like this. More protests. More court cases. More blockades, town meetings, public forums, and damning environmental reports.

One Nation will not stop fighting to rid the nation of renewables.

And if the lights go out, we’ll fight in the dark.

We won’t stop until this madness ends.
Spectator Australia

Greens in Shock at Australia’s “Rally Against Reckless Renewables”
Watts Up With That?
Eric Worall
9 February 2024

The recent anti-renewables rally in front of Australia’s federal parliament appears to have encouraged leading opposition politicians to harden their stance on renewables.

Shock at call for moratorium on ‘reckless renewables’

 Marion Rae  February 6, 2024

The coalition has been accused of being out of touch with families and the climate for change by backing anti-renewable energy activists.

The Rally Against Reckless Renewables in front of Parliament House on Tuesday marked the start of the 2024 federal parliamentary year.

…

“Toxic rhetoric from Barnaby Joyce and other Liberal and National Party MPs at the rally today are stark reminders that the energy policy that lost the coalition the last federal election is alive and well,” Smart Energy Council CEO John Grimes said.

He said it was “outrageous” that Nationals leader David Littleproud backed the call for a moratorium on renewables, putting more than 60,000 Australian renewable energy jobs under direct threat.

…

Climate Capital Forum founder Blair Palese said the coalition’s campaign to suspend investment in decarbonisation was “reckless and shortsighted”.

“There is no time left for these delaying tactics and disinformation about the renewable transition,” she said.

…

Read more: https://www.aap.com.au/news/demo-against-reckless-renewables-as-parliament-begins/

“There is no time left for these delaying tactics” is exactly the kind of arrogance which kicked up so much rural opposition.

I’ve previously spoken in person to some of the people who attended the recent rally, at previous events in Widgee, Gympie and elsewhere.

My understanding, initially many rural folk were not hostile towards renewables, but they wanted the powerlines to be buried underground. They were worried about EMF emissions, and were also worried overhead power lines would cause problems if firefighting helicopters and aircraft needed to access their land. They didn’t want their tranquil rural view and amenity wrecked by unsightly power pylons. They also wanted to minimise the risk of downed power lines starting fires.

Rural people told me the power company response to their polite concerns was all too frequently “sign this or we’ll get a compulsory acquisition order and seize your land anyway”.

When grassroots movements gathered momentum, powerline companies made more effort to communicate, but these outreach efforts were marred by allegations of hostile acts, like claims power company representatives trespassed on people’s land to conduct surveys without permission, and removed and confiscated roadside protest signs.

The large rural rallies I attended weren’t intended to be one sided. The organisers sent sincere invitations to politicians and energy company representatives. Leaders of the grass roots rallies I attended were genuinely shocked their invitations were ignored by mainstream party politicians whom they had trusted for years to look out for their interests. Frequently, the only politicians who cared enough about concerned rural residents to show up to meetings were politicians who strongly oppose the green agenda, politicians like One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts and LNP MP Colin Boyce.

This is very much a political mess of the greens own making. Green and mainstream political unwillingness to listen, and unconcealed contempt and hostility for country people’s concerns, has hardened the hearts of the Aussie rural community, and turned what was a polite request for a little dialogue into hardline opposition to green energy projects.
Watts Up With That?

People from regional Australia attend Reckless Renewables rally held in Canberra
Sky News
Chris Kenny and Peter Ridd
6 February 2024

Many people from regional Australia attended a Reckless Renewables rally on Tuesday in Canberra to protest solar and windfarms which have been proposed to be built near their homes.

Australian Environment Foundation Chairman Peter Ridd said the people who attended the protest were a “really good crowd”.

“When you consider there was probably nobody from within a couple of hours of Canberra – the ‘Canberra bubble’,” he told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

“I have absolutely no doubt that there would’ve been people from the government who would’ve … thought this is a well-organised bunch who are bringing together a lot of people who completely upset with the aristocracy in the middle of the cities telling countryfolk what to do.

“Coming out and saying how some of these wind farms are absolutely destroying the environment.”

Transcript

Chris Kenny: Let’s go to a man who was at the rally today, Peter Ridd, who’s chairman of the Australian Environment Foundation. Thanks for joining us, Peter. Tell us about the gathering there and whether you think it got through to the politicians who need to hear about it inside Parliament House. I showed earlier how Monique Ryan seemed to think the protest was despicable.

Peter Ridd: Well, there was a really good crowd, and when you consider there was probably nobody from within a couple of hours of the Canberra bubble. There were people from North Queensland, people from South Australia, they came from all over and it was a wonderful crowd, and I have absolutely no doubt that there would’ve been people from the government who would’ve been checking that out and thought, “This is a well-organised bunch who are bringing together a lot of people who are completely upset with the aristocracy in the middle of the cities, telling country folk what to do on all sorts of things,” and also coming out and saying how some of these wind farms are absolutely destroying the environment. I think the point was well-made today, and it was extremely well-organised.

Chris Kenny: I think it was. I think the politicians will be worried because these are spread across many electorates.
Sky News

Video links – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3