Barnaby Joyce’s bill to terminate net zero, introduced into federal parliament this week, is a necessary disruption to Australia’s out-of-touch political establishment.
To the extent that anyone understands or thinks about net zero, it is assumed its impacts are confined to our energy sector and that it is relatively cost free.
We are told by those who have pushed this agenda that it is a moral imperative to replace coal and gas with wind and solar. Never mind the costly batteries and thousands of kilometres of transmission lines all this necessitates.
Certainly, net zero’s impact on our energy sector is massive, and is already apparent in the one-third increase to household energy bills over the past five years.
But what is less recognised is the fact that net zero is a massive vehicle for governments to centralise control over the lives of Australians from Canberra, and to destroy the Australian way of life.
Net zero affects everything, from the cars we can drive, the food we can eat, the jobs we can have, the types of houses we can live in, and how expensive it is to fly for a holiday.
Net zero is, in other words, a mechanism by which government can impose its ideology on the rest of the nation.
There is also the job-crushing effect of net zero. Institute of Public Affairs analysis, as reported in today’s Daily Telegraph, shows that 631,800 jobs are on the chopping block. Not surprisingly, these jobs will come from our agriculture and mining sectors. Worryingly, more than 135,000 of the jobs at risk are from various manufacturing sectors, despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s pledge to increase Australian manufacturing.
It was the Coalition under Scott Morrison, without debate, that signed Australia up to net zero, and it now seems to have been hoisted on its own petard.
Net zero is set to hit Coalition voters the hardest, with 16 of the 20 seats with most jobs at risk from net zero being held by them. Conversely, just one of the 20 seats with the fewest jobs at risk is held by the Coalition.
Interestingly, the electorate of Maranoa, home of Nationals leader David Littleproud, faces losing 21 per cent of its jobs. Farrer, held by Liberal leader Sussan Ley, faces losing 13 per cent of its jobs. In holding on to net zero, the Coalition is punishing its own voters. Despite the Coalition pursuing a ‘teal strategy’ at both the 2022 and 2025 elections, it was resoundingly defeated twice.
By retaining and promoting its commitment to net zero, the Coalition has failed to gain representation among the seats least impacted by it.
All the Coalition has achieved is preventing the kind of public debate on net zero that Australians deserve. Now, thanks to Barnaby Joyce’s intervention, there will be debate in Canberra about this madness.
