1 August 2017

This article first appeared in the IPA Review July 2017 This year marks an important milestone in the ongoing battle for truth and objectivity in the science of climate change—the publication of the IPA’s latest book, Climate Change: The Facts 2017. Edited by IPA Senior Fellow Dr Jennifer Marohasy, the book includes contributions by Marohasy, Jo Nova, Tony Heller and

26 July 2017

The Victorian Government’s new Statement on Future Uses of Brown Coal, released earlier this month, is further proof that there is no such thing as bipartisanship when it comes to energy policy, and that those who strive for agreement are on a fool’s errand. The press release accompanying the statement said that the government had “unveiled a new policy that will drive investment,

20 July 2017

The lengths to which some policy makers go in a democratic society to ensure that other points of view aren’t even allowed a look-in, is as unbelievable as it is offensive. This practice is common in mainstream debates such as climate change (the science is settled), and freedom of speech (if you disagree with me you’re a racist), but the

13 July 2017

Last week it was Elon Musk in South Australia and this week it is former US Vice President Al Gore visiting Victoria for the 2017 EcoCity World Summit, predictably to talk about climate change, the so-called evils of coal and need for more renewables. Two different weeks, and two different states – but the same embarrassing spectacle of star struck

7 July 2017

Less than a day after the news that shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors are down 20% on their peak as questions start to mount about the company’s ability to successfully deliver quality products (including here, here, here, here and here ) comes the news that Tesla, already the beneficiary of $5 billion of taxpayer subsidies has now won the

5 July 2017

Amongst the recent brouhaha about US President Trump’s late-night tweeting habits, a lot of people missed a major speech he delivered last week on energy policy which included details of a new six point plan to achieve “American energy dominance” (actual transcript here). Note already the difference with Australia – in America, the government is aiming for “energy dominance” whereas

1 July 2017

Throughout the western world over the last 20-30 years in particular, we have witnessed the tightening hand of the state, which has become ever more bold in insisting where and how we live, who we can work for or employ, what we can say and think, whose car we can get into, whose home we can stay in, and what

20 June 2017

The greatest contribution the Finkel Review makes to Australian public policy may, in fact, be a new verb. From June 2017, to ‘finkel’ will be a term to describe how a government sets up an independent review that quickly gets hijacked by vested interests, rewrites its own terms of reference and delivers a report with skewed modelling and a patchwork of contradictory recommendations

15 June 2017

Free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs has today sent all Federal Parliamentarians a new Research Brief highlighting the ‘Five Unanswered Questions from the Finkel Review.’ IPA research has been critical in framing the debate around climate change policy over the past decade. “This debate should not be about how best to manage the decline of coal. It

14 June 2017

In the wake of South Australia’s September 2016 blackout, the Council of Australian Governments Energy Council announced the establishment of an ‘expert panel’ chaired by Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel AO to “develop a national reform blueprint to maintain energy security and reliability in the National Electricity Market (NEM).” Download the full research brief here