Four years ago, both sides of politics conspired to agree to the radical goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. There was never any detailed plan. The idea was to fundamentally change how we make things, how we mine things, how we drive around and even what food we eat, all in a generation. It was the most radical plan ever adopted by an Australian Government and it was always destined to end in tears.
Four years later the obvious has happened. Since we adopted net zero energy prices are up 40 per cent, we have lost over 7000 manufacturing jobs and we no longer even make urea, the most important fertiliser used in farming. Urea is made from gas, and our food security is now dependent on imports of urea from China and the Middle East.
I have been fighting against this net zero madness from the get-go. After years of trying, in the past few weeks I, and some others in the LNP, have convinced our colleagues to drop net zero because it is not working for Australians. There are now 70 LNP Members of Parliament fighting to restore living standards for Australians and to protect the manufacturing jobs left in this country.
One Nation has been fighting against net zero for these past four years too. They have four Senators against net zero, and no one in the House of Representatives.
This week was the first Parliamentary sitting week when the Government faced a concerted opposition to their net zero plans and their failure to lower power prices. The Government was on the back foot, and they could not even answer a simple question about when power prices would fall like they had promised.
Labor’s Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, had just had himself appointed “President of Negotiations” for next year’s climate conference in Turkey. Australia now has a part-time Energy Minister just as prices spiral out of control and we are struggling to keep the lights on.
This was the chance to hold the Government to account and return Australian policymaking back to the commonsense ground of running our energy system to deliver the lowest possible prices for our nation, not to win acclaim from the United Nations.
Instead of joining us in taking the fight up to the Government, One Nation decided to engage in a series of childish and useless stunts that do nothing but let the government off the hook.
First, Pauline Hanson wore a burqa into the Senate, a stunt she recycled from 2017 when she did the same thing. There is the need to debate our migration levels but mocking the dress of fellow Australians does nothing to advance that cause. Pauline’s stunt cheapened the Senate, disrespected fellow Australians, and weakened the case to lower our migration levels to more reasonable levels.
Then, Pauline cooked a steak for Barnaby Joyce on a sandwich maker in her office. I am good mates with Barnaby, but I don’t agree with his flirting with another party. He was elected as a Nationals Member for New England. To change parties just months after that election is an insult to the people that elected and supported him.
And he is going to join a party that resembles more of a movie set full of stunt men and women than a serious political outfit that will change Australia for the better.
On that Pauline also released a movie version of her cartoons this week. Her cartoons are funny but is Pauline in show business or the making Australia better business? From the evidence this week it seems One Nation is far more interested in the outrage than the outcome.
