By Jo Nova
It was always going to happen, as long as the Minister for Weather was determined to control Pacific Decadal Oscillations with windmills. Everyone would be happy-happy until the bill arrived.
In a survey of 500 Australian companies, the rapid rise of energy costs are now the single biggest concern. Any given business was three times as likely to worry about the price of energy rather than about Trump’s tariffs.
Yet in the election campaign, mere months ago, media coverage of US tariffs was wall-to-wall.
Likewise, the billion-dollar-ABC spends 100 times as long lecturing us on foreign wars as it does discussing the things Australians need, like lights, heat, air conditioning and jobs. The national conversation about electricity grids is nothing more than renewable advertising slogans and fairy wish spells. Everyone can subsidize everyone else to buy solar panels and batteries, and we’ll all have free electricity, yeah?
Is there a productivity crisis in Australia. Shh!
A survey of more than 500 Australian companies has found energy costs have become the top business challenge
Matthew Cranston, The Australian
Businesses now rank the cost of energy as the chief concern for their future, rating it almost three times more worrying than US tariff and trade disruptions, according to new analysis.
Several corporate leaders, including those in the manufacturing sector, say the cost of energy is rising so fast that it’s now risking their competitiveness with importers…
BHP’s Mr Henry told a shareholder forum last month: “The reality is … Australia has electricity costs that are two to three times higher than countries that we are competing with and 50 to 100 per cent higher than the US.”
The chief executive of data centre owner NEXTDC, Craig Scroggie, said higher energy costs were crimping Australia’s competitiveness. “No one is happy with higher energy costs, especially when the government says they are going to be low.
We’re reached the point where we are thousands of miles away from most factories and smelters, but we still can’t make anything cheaper for ourselves than they can. Energy costs are rising so fast in Australia, it’s less expensive to dig up rocks, put them on ships and send them 6,000 kilometers to China, to smelt the steel with our own coal, and then ship the widgets right back to us. And if it’s made with slave labor and plenty of pollution, that’s OK.
Image by James Joyce from Pixabay
Until they say, every time, that renewables are the problem, nothing will change.
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The raising of energy prices is a form of rationing.
The rationing of energy in all its forms is the current obsession of those who would prefer a world with fewer humans.
Climate Change TM was all about rationing of energy, expressed as “carbon footprint”.
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,.True
. We should be very worried about how long it took them to start to notice.
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Ruinables, the cheapest form of new energy. Yeah, dead right.
Airbus Albo and Blackout Bowen, how much new investment into Australia did you tee up on your recent World Tour at Taxpayer expense?
None! I thought so.
What a waste of space you New Muppets are. The original Muppets were way, way better. They made us laugh. You lot just make us cry.
Vale Australia until the place wakes up. Not long to go now.
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Until the conservative sector of Australian politics pulls itself together and unites as a single alternative to the Uniparty nothing will change.
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.Rick, they must. !! L
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More like:
Until the business sector of Australia pulls itself together and unites as a single alternative to the Marxist Labor Party, nothing will change.
They get what they voted for.
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I just saw a post on Facebook by The Nationals calling out the cost of Labor’s ruinables plan at over 1.3 Trillion and saying we need nuclear for future electricity generation.
It’s a good start, but they’re still implying we need a reduction in CO2 by advocating for nuclear.
Personally, I’m all for Nuclear just because it’s the most energy dense, efficient, cleanest, smallest footprint generation source, but we also need Coal as a major electricity provider in the short term.
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Renewables may be the energy problem, but the underlying issue is the governments and academia lying about a climate crisis caused supposedly by CO2 `pollution’, when there is no problem with nature’s `gas of life’. CO2 does not have the capacity to significantly affect our climate, so to impute it does is just an ideological position to justify the current global climate/energy political crisis imposed upon the rich nations by environmental zealots in the UN and socialist governments worldwide. They have been very successful because they have used moralistic arguments about `saving the planet’ and the Precautionary principle to make people feel righteous and virtuous about what they are proposing, when in reality they are radically ruining the west’s economic base and its prosperity that is based on cheap electricity and abundant fossil fuel products. Once the public has realized they have been conned into reducing their lifestyles for no benefit to society or the planet they will reject the offending government policies and punish the guilty environmental sycophants as is happening now in the US under Trump- to his credit.
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Labor is a lesson every generation seems to have to learn for it’s self.
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I remember Whitlam. At least half of our population, probably more, do not. Hawk was an anomaly, not being repeated by the present Bozo.
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What the ALP can’t see – using ineffective power generation which needs huge taxpayer support to expand let alone exist RAISES CONSUMER POWER PRICES and decreases the funds available for other infrastructure programs needed by communities.
Then giving compensation for high power prices to consumers burdens the taxpayer with more public debt.
On top of that when businesses go bust due to power costs and employees are unemployed the tax base shrinks creating a double whammy to debt levels.
What could go wrong – EVERYTHING!!
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There objective is to get everybody on the public teat, thus guaranteeing an eternal Labor government.
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By there I presume you mean the Federal Government which does not fix electricity prices. The Australian Energy Regulator sets maximum prices for network owners in the National Electricity Market and state governments, like Western Australia, control their own electricity prices and operate outside the NEM.
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Why use the shortened version, NEM, when the full version is more appropriate: NEMESIS.
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The point you’re missing, Ian, is that the Marxist Labor incompetents set the energy policy.
The Australian Energy Regulator implements it.
It could all be changed very quickly by making a contract an enforceable contract. That is, if a windmill owner contracts to supply X kWh of electricity they must provide it whether the wind blows or not.
If they don’t have it, then they can purchase it from a battery owner or a coal-fired power station. If they breach their contract to supply, they get fined, sanctioned or put out of business.
A contract to supply has to be enforceable.
That’s the governments responsibility.
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Until the rolling blackouts start which is a matter of when and not if , nothing will change .
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The tricky little devils use “demand management” at the moment.
I wonder what percentage of the public even know that when this occurs they are paying for those businesses to stop using electrickery?
Demand management is really a synonym for blackout.
A fair percentage of the population are probably clueless when this occurs as it doesn’t affect them.
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Yes, hundreds of millions are paid for aluminium smelters to be shut down in order to avoid blackouts.
Jo reported about this. This wasn’t the article I had in mind but I can’t find that and this is related:
https://joannenova.com.au/2024/12/grid-not-fit-for-purpose-on-a-warm-day-crazy-australia-paid-3-5m-to-industry-to-stop-working/
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Labor seems to think paying industries not to opetate is nation building stuff.
To much supply ? Pay the problem makers when they are curtailed
To much demand ? Pay industry to shut down. Not fogetting you paid them with low elecricity rates in the first place to set up.
No ideas? Pay consultants to dream up and package these insane policies..
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Also, it will get FAR worse when the additional 35% tax on “carbon” is added to the largest companies, due to the “Safeguard Mechanism”. TdeF regularly warns us about this. Most people are unaware of it and don’t understand it.
https://joannenova.com.au/2025/04/even-the-eu-the-motherlode-of-climate-action-backs-away-from-climate-targets/#comment-2840404
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/emissions-reporting/national-greenhouse-energy-reporting-scheme/safeguard-mechanism/overview
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“The price of an Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) is determined by market forces, but there are also specific costs and prices associated with the Safeguard Mechanism and its cost containment measure. For the 2024-25 period, the fixed price for eligible emitters to purchase ACCUs under the cost containment measure is $79.20.
Surrendered ACCUs from 1.2 million in 2023-23 to 7.1 million in 2023–24
This was at 5%. So say 7million x $80 = $560million. At a 5% rate. The full 35% rate will bring in at least 7x$560Million or about $4billion. Presumably this will be doubled as usual and passed on to consumers as an $8 Billion CO2 tax. For which you get precisely nothing.
This needs proper forensic analysis. There is no actual reduction in CO2. Aircraft cannot use less fuel. Smelters cannot stop producing CO2 from Fe2O3 or concrete makers or users. Or the Trans Tasman Ferry. Or trucks. So it is all just billed to the public as a secret tax. Even sewage processing is taxed. So I suppose the Australian public can save money by eating half as much.
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And farmers can get this cash, by growing trees instead of food. So the nett result is destroying the power station, transport and manufacturing and the food supply. WWIII is already underway and being waged by our own government against the people of Australia.
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And remember, now the Labor/Greens have this hidden tax running and no one says a thing, they can keep tweaking it. Just this week Bowen/Chalmers were suggesting they drop the threshold to suck in more buinesses. There is no business which does anything which does not generate CO2. If the Federal government can tax the MMBW as a major polluter, a Victorian government utility handling sewage and water, you can tax anyone. And your MMBW rates will soar as governments tax governments. And the money goes where? It’s not even in the budget.
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Does China own Australia?
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Not yet, but they are actively destroying it from within using their useful idiot minions, until it is cheap enough to buy out the remaining stock like a clearing lot auction.
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This is why I have just ordered a battery addition to my solar.
NOT to save the World from climate change
NOT because ruinables are the lowest (it is to laugh) form of energy generation
NOT because I believe anything Albosleezy and Blackout Bowen tell us, ad nauseum
We are now having to create individual survival strategies
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The more of us who add solar/battery, the faster the decline of the grid and the sooner sanity must prevail.
If the various varieties of socialist government in Australia do manage to drive out all heavy industry then rooftop solar/battery is the only viable option. So having your own now puts you in a good place whichever way it goes.
If sanity prevails within a few years and intermittent generators are required to pay their way then you can just set up the inverter to shut down export.
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I think the rolling blackouts could start soon, but don’t ever forget that expensive, unreliable, toxic energy always leads to national insecurity.
And without national security we will have a very weak and chaotic environment that will always lead to disaster.
Anyone that believes that toxic, expensive, unreliable W & S are the answer should wake up and follow the data.
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You nailed it. We are already weakened by the communist mob in Canberra and our lying PM who couldn’t tell the truth if a loaded gun was held to his head. Weak government, imported terror and totally irrational spending is weakening us as well the cost of energy. Our international reputation is in tatters with his and his ministers terrible choices, net zero being just one of them.
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I don’t think those are chickens.
Buzzards more likely.
If you have those in Oz.
It wouldn’t be Australian buzzards circling anyway.
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We have the black-breasted buzzard, Hamirostra melanosternon.
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Our ‘buzzard’ is the Wedge tailed Eagle.
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In my area of the world we have Turkey Buzzards and their congregation is known as a “kettle” – though I rarely see more than two together at any time.Their disposal of carrion is invaluable.
Parasites are the issue here and their congregation is known as progressive democrats. My district is plagued with crotch itch
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Even some intelligent ex greens are telling us that Labor, Greens and Teals are destroying thousands of Klms of Eastern Australia and they insist we build only BASELOAD energy for our future prosperity.
When will these stupid parties wake up to the facts? Even donkeys like Bob Brown etc are now NIMBYs and also hate clueless, toxic W & S.
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The Greens are waking up, a split is coming.
‘Inside the Greens wrestle with ‘destructive’ renewables.
‘Larissa Waters is so far resisting a push for Greens to call out renewables projects that damage biodiversity. Some of her senators are not so shy.’ (Oz)
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The key point is that we’ve managed to get Papua New Guinea into a defense arrangement with Australia. I’m not sure which of the two is the weaker link, but my bet is on the South Island.
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What is extraordinary is that they keep quiet about the elephant in the room, the Safeguard Mechanism. 15% tax on CO2 next year, applied to all our suppliers of goods and services and transport, even the MMBW, one of the top ‘polluters’. And of course CO2 is literally toxic pollution, something which is no longer true in the United States.
So why doesn’t anyone complain? Because deals are done, like the old Sales tax. You have to agree not to tell your customers and they give you a discount rate. I have read that the steel makers are around 2%, not 10%. And ultimately 35%. Plus of course any leakage of methane, say from the working pipelines on the North West Shelf, which are going to be turned off presumably rather than pay the tax. While there is a gas shortage in Australia! By 2030, the tax on every piece of frieght, even flight will be a massive 35%.
And last week our genius Treasurer was talking lowering the limit to be a ‘major polluter’.
What they don’t do is tax petrol, because everyone would wake up. And the media don’t mention it. Everyone is shtum about the world’s highest CO2 tax.
When will they tax us on breathing?
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I think people won’t even notice the extra 35% because they’re already conditioned to prices increasing by perhaps 25-30% per year (my estimate and people I ask for grocery prices) when the official rate of inflation is a mere 3%, an obvious lie.
In addition, I am not even aware thst apart from you TdeF and others here, anyone, including our few conservative politicians are aware of it. It is a cleverly (deceptively) hidden mega tax.
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‘When will they tax us on breathing?’ They are! It’s all and only about carbon dioxide.
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All life on earth breathes out CO2. And it’s toxic pollution? No science whatsoever. Just greed and power.
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Yes, as a horticulturist, I know what’s good for the plan(e)t.
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I bet that the typical Green Labor politician and those that vote for them couldn’t even tell you the gases of respiration of plants or animals. (Not joking.)
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“And of course CO2 is literally toxic pollution, something which is no longer true in the United States.”
‘Science’ changes based on which hemisphere you are in, apparently
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This quote from the CSIRO ( Wiki) article states that each Human exhales about 1 kg of co2 every day and 365 kg per year.
In a life of 74 years that would be about 27000 kgs or 27 tons.
Twenty seven tons by 8000,000,000 + million people would be about 216 giga tons.
Here’s the CSIRO quote.
“The body produces approximately 2.3 pounds (1.0 kg) of carbon dioxide per day per person,[72] containing 0.63 pounds (290 g) of carbon. In humans, this carbon dioxide is carried through the venous system and is breathed out through the lungs, resulting in lower concentrations in the arteries”.
Carbon dioxide – Wikipedia —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide
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If businesses are hurting, where are all the AD’s from business pointing out the fallacy of global warming?
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People aren’t hurting enough to take any more action than either bellyaching and or voting for the Uniparty to pretend to help out. The big businesses that can are already going off-shore to more sensible economies. Those that can’t, including small businesses will wither on the vine. Those energy consumers not able to pay their exoprbitant bills will be subsidised by those who can still pay. To sum up, Australians are in a bad way with Albanese and his Communist style government, deliberately running Australia into ruin. What with the current intrangsigent push by Albanese government sociopaths to plough on with their narcissistic renewables juggernaut, the public hurt may reach the level where civil disobedience breaks out. Possibly in general strikes or mass refusal to pay unreasonable and exorbitant energy bills. Whatever happens, there’s more pain in the offing for Australian energy consumers.
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Very good point Joe and just proves how gutless most of them are and with your head buried in the dirt and your backside pointing to the sky you’re in a very vulnerable position.
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The extra shame is that people like me with hands on knowledge of Aust electricity wrote to some of those who decide or influence prices to warn that increases could not be avoided under renewables. Not one reply came back to me at the time or ever. Geoff S
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I see, Geoff, that you’ve gone blue in the face telling them what they don’t want to hear.
Take it from me – they don’t want to know.
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https://richardsonpost.com/cliff-reece/40723/communist-chinas-exploitation-of-renewable-energy/
“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has cornered the global market in components needed to build electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, transmission towers, and other so-called ‘green’ technologies and equipment. And now they are using that leverage to weaken their opponents in democratic countries like the USA, Canada, UK, EU and Australia.”
Even worse for Australia is the fact we have a Federal Government and a majority of States under a malign Chinese influence. The State of Victoria is especially compromised. The current State Premier, Jacinta Allan and her predecessor Daniel Andrews both of these persons have recently been feted by Xi Xing Ping. Andrews was a special guest at the recent huge Military Parade
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The Chinese government had someone on the 28gate committee that said that lying by the BBC was OK so long as they called it “science”. There is probably a similar committee also attended by the Chinese government where the ABC also started campaigning for the Chinese state policy of western economic suicide through Nut Zer0
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The latest Climate Realism Show is about Jo’s topic for today and they show Pope Leo blessing a lump of ice and of course ignoring many poor people who still live with very little energy in 2025.
And ditto the new female Archbishop of Canterbury who understands nothing and couldn’t care less about the poorer members of her flock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKF2VDyb6tc
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I have acknowledgement of my submission to the misinformation committee:
I am doubtful my submission will even get published on the government website. But this Is a reminder for those interested:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pD4Z310rnteBKbCLDUcqBCCas5XWn66l/view?usp=sharing
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With regard the integrity of their ABC. I was stuck in a motel room this morning with not much to do so was flicking channels and saw similar news reports on their ABC and Channel 7 Sunrise.
Their ABC had stilted, woke reporting. Channel 7 managed to make the same reports entertaining and engaging. My wife pointed out that is the difference you get when their livelihood depends on their audience engagement and continued viewership. As long as their ABC reporters toe the political line and do not rock the boat they have a life-long job.
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There are still businesses operating in Australia…?
I learn something new every day.
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Net Zero = Economic Suicide.
It’s that simple. And yet all the (once) mainstream parties voted for it.
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I have zero sympathy for Australian Businesses who have played footsies with the government on climate change whilst destroying the competitiveness of their industries.As much as any of the special interest groups in the economy the support of the Business Council has been instrumental in giving credibility to the governments porkies they have told about the transition. Having helped the governments get into power in part with the false narrative they will be disappointed if they think the government will assist them to get back their competitiveness. They deserve to suffer which unfortunately means we will suffer as well.
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The rewards of political laziness and complacency, well done sheeple✌️😀
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You’ve seen Germany and you’re now seeing the UK, with the most perverse pricing that rewards windmills for not working when the wind blows and now the highest power prices in the world.😳
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/09/30/britain-paying-highest-electricity-prices-in-the-world-as-net-zero-costs-rise/
Most folk now recognise it’s a scam but with that ideologue, Mad Ed who started it way back in the noughties with the Climate Change Act:2008, back in charge.
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So 500 companies, presumably the company leaders, say energy costs are their biggest concern, yet for years and still today on social media sites, especially the Business networking site LinkedIn, almost every large company, their CEOs, Managing Directors etc will have recent posts signifying their belief in the Climate crisis and how they’re doing their part to “get to” NET ZERO.. so they’re all hypocrites and are all to blame for the situation that we find ourselves in, whereas they should have been speaking up like those of us on this blog have been doing for years.
When the AEMO- Australian Energy Market Operator openly celebrate every record high penetration of solar and /or wind for a pathetic 5 minute interval on our grid systems, (eg 85% Renewables for NSW) while completely ignoring the facts that these hugely fluctuating highs and lows of weather dependent energy convertors cannibalise the grid and make everything more complex, more unstable and more EXPENSIVE, it shows those is charge are completely captured by an ideology and have no clue what they are doing!
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