By Jo Nova
The truth is most Australians are skeptics
The Liberals are tearing themselves apart this week over what to do with Net Zero policy. Yet there is polling this week by the Centre for Independent Studies that apparently shows 69% of people would rather use more coal and gas if it made their electricity bills lower. And 55% supported delaying the Net Zero target if it meant electricity was cheaper. As reported in The Australian.
So two thirds of the nation clearly don’t think the oceans are going to boil. And lets not forget this is on the back of years of relentless Net Zero propaganda, lessons in schools, and the support of both the government and the opposition. There are no popular sit-coms mocking the windmills, nor are there celebrity endorsements, or football clubs with sponsorship from Big-coal or shirts that say “Instant Power”. There is no Trump or Farage figure here on TV (because the Blob media wouldn’t let them on). Yet somehow the voters have figured it out anyway, but they don’t know they’re in the majority. They don’t wear activist T-shirts and they don’t have bumper stickers on their car.
There’s an electoral fire here waiting for a spark
Imagine how big the support would be for cheap electricity and coal and gas if the leader of the Opposition was brave enough to take on the Global Bullies of Warming? To just laugh at the petty namecalling (“denier” — it’s a political ploy, not a term of science). To mock the delusion that we can control storms and tides with our solar panels. To calmly say that they will not cave in to coercion, when China, India and the US are increasing emissions. Australians need electricity we can afford. We need our own industries, we are not just a quarry.
A real opposition leader could point out our wholesale electricity prices were 3 cents a kilowatt hour for year after year until we started trying to change the jet streams and ocean currents with our power stations. Who knew fiddling with the clouds would be so expensive — everyone knew. That’s why they never published reports saying “we just need 2 billion more solar panels to save Bangladesh”.
The more renewables we add the more expensive electricity gets. | Graph: AER
And that’s the thing, even without the idea being put in front of them, two thirds of Australians don’t believe the CSIRO, they don’t believe the BOM, or the UN anymore. They don’t need to have a PhD to know that people who constantly forecast doom and gloom keep getting it wrong. And they don’t need a degree in climate science to know the models don’t work, because they can see the contradictions — that CO2 causes heatwaves and cold snaps and more wind and less wind, and more rain but more bushfires too.
So will the Liberals stand on the same side as 69% of the voters, or will they chicken out? Do we live in a democracy or don’t we? A genuine question.
Real leaders try to figure out what the right answer is, then lead the way. In this case the unwashed masses have already figured it out — they’re just waiting for a leader to arise to represent them. If Sussan Ley can’t rise to the test, when even the taxi drivers can see through a fake ‘science’ debate, the Liberals need a new leader.
With Shadow Ministers like Andrew Hastie stepping down, and Barnaby Joyce talking of leaving the Nationals, the Coalition is in an existential crisis. Months after the electoral-bloodbath the Liberals still don’t know whether to try to win the old conservative inner-city seats or to follow the Trump and Farage winning formula and call a spade a spade and take the working class away from the Labor Party.
The British conservatives missed the moment, and may never recover.
Photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash