In the real world, Australia faces major gas shortages next year despite being the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas in the world.
In the fake world of Parliament House, we are debating what are our emissions targets should be in eight years’ time.
In the real world, China is conducting live fire exercises around Taiwan, including in areas inside its natural waters.
In the fake world of Parliament House, we are debating how we can stop new oil and gas projects even though we are no longer self-sufficient in energy.
My first two weeks back at Parliament since the election have been surreal. Parliament House is built partly underground inside Capital Hill. Maybe we actually get here via rabbit holes that take us through the looking glass.
It is a strange world. We have a Mad Hatter, who thinks it is always question time, and asks nonsensical things that no one understands like “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
And, our own Queen of Hearts, in our new Prime Minister, who believes in impossible things and, just like Lewis Carroll’s mythical Queen, can sometimes believe “as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
He believes that an Australian Act of Parliament can change the temperature of the globe. It will also stop bushfires, stop droughts, stop the rain too, fix the Great Barrier Reef and, I think, improve your love life to boot.
This Act does all these things even though the Government says it does not need the legislation. Are there so few challenges facing Australians that we can waste Parliament’s time with things we want rather than things we need?
Anthony Albanese believes that Australians will forget that he promised to cut their electricity bills by $275. He promised time and time again before the election to save you $275. Indeed, he posted the promise to his social media saying that he does not “think” he will save Australians $275, he said he “knows” his policies will. Within weeks of the election the new Government dumped this promise.
He believes that renewable energy is cheap. There is a clear relationship between higher solar and wind installations and higher prices across all countries.
Those countries with the highest shares of solar and wind, like Denmark and Germany, have the highest power prices in the world.
Australia is fast trying to join the high price club, installing more solar and wind on a per person basis than any other country recently. And, guess what, our power prices are surging.
Anthony Albanese believes that giving rich people more welfare will lower the cost of living.
The Government introduced legislation to make electric cars cheaper but the discounts will be greater the higher your taxable income is.
Under Labor’s proposed child care changes a family on $360,000 a year will receive 6 times more benefit than a family on $70,000.
Mr Albanese believes that we do not need fossil fuels to protect our national security.
The most concerning news this week was the tension in the Taiwan straits. Australia’s oil refining capacity is a third of what it was 20 years ago.
Thanks to high natural gas prices we will no longer make urea, the most commonly used fertiliser, by the end of this year.
We perhaps have not been more ill-prepared for an outbreak of conflict since the 1930s, and the risk of conflict has never been greater since then.
Alice’s sister eventually wakes up from her dreamland down the rabbit hole. It is about time we as country wake up too before it is too late.
