Does the Coalition Party room need an ordinary Joe or (or Jim) to go to Canberra and draw them a picture to illustrate what will happen if they legislate the NEG.
I mean, is it possible to be that thick, not to understand the consequences of what they’re about to do?
What part of the Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel’s sledgehammer comment, to senate estimates “It would make virtually no difference” don’t they understand when he was asked what would happen if Australia reverted to antediluvian or pre 1788 times.
In medicine the guiding principle is ‘first do no harm’. In law, to do a criminal act whilst being aware of what it is you’re doing or about to do, is said to be done with “malice aforethought’
And make no mistake, what the Turnbull government is about to do is a criminal act with extreme malice aforethought.
The only certainty in all of this is that, as sure as night follows day, when Labor wins the next election (or the one after) they will take the NEG ramp it up, turbocharge it and weaponise it to achieve, who knows, pick a number, 50%, 75% renewables, to solve a problem that simply doesn’t exist and again, referring to Finkel, even if it did, there’s nothing Australia could do that would make any difference.
To suggest that you can somehow lower emissions with subsidised renewables at the expense of coal and at the same time, still achieve reliability, affordability and availability is a lie. Its is the stuff of the magic pudding and not to be believed. Only the wishful thinkers and dreamers will buy it.
The only thing this guarantee, guarantees is more of the same. And to further suggest that, in an historical context, a $500 a year saving (10 a week) is significant and generous saving is an insult to the intelligence..
Ronald Reagan could have had renewables in mind when he quipped that: Government does not solve problems; it subsidises them. He also noted that government is not a solution to our problems, government is the problem.
In this age of gesture politics this is the mother of all virtue signals. Our government and alternative government is prepared to trash, wreck and totally vandalise our economy for no other reason than to primp and preen and strut on the world stage.
We need to remind ourselves that this total mess, this absolute energy dogs breakfast which is about to be compounded and concreted in forever, was cause by the Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Rudd Abbott, Turnbull political class.
And now these original arsonists are turning up as firemen and would have us believe that they know what they’re doing.
It seems that one way or another we are destined for those days pre 1788