Image by Cortex Zone from Pixabay
By Jo Nova
A few weeks of high fuel prices have destroyed 20 years of climate propaganda, pfft!
Australians have barely mentioned drilling for oil in Australia in the last twenty years. It was unthinkable. But two new polls show a dramatic awakening. Suddenly Australian voters want more oil and gas. In the first poll, 65% support more drilling for oil and gas, and in the second poll, it was 57%. These are whopping majorities. And we’ve barely started to discuss it.
Only a small minority (just 16%) were still waving the Green flag and are opposed to oil drilling. Rarely in a democracy, do we see so many people line up on the opposite side of the government policy.
Negativity to Renewables is rising. I don’t see how the Net Zero forced revolution is going to survive high fuel and electricity prices.
Surging support for new refineries, oil and gas drilling, and biofuels
By Geoff Chambers, The Australian, April 17th
More than 70 per cent of Australians support the development of new fuel refineries and 65 per cent of voters back more oil and gas drilling in the wake of the Middle East war, as resistance to Anthony Albanese’s renewables revolution grows.
Amid rising concerns about Australia’s fuel security following a fire at one of the two remaining oil refineries in the country, the poll showed surging support in favour of new refineries (73 per cent), unlocking more oil and gas to produce more fuel (65 per cent)…
Only 10 per cent of Australians oppose developing more refineries and 16 per cent reject allowing more oil and gas drilling.
The Mood of the Nation survey, (April 7-13), revealed “record high negativity towards the renewable energy transition”. The SECNewgate Mood of the Nation survey of 1237 voters across every state and territory
A new Sky News poll of 1.500 Australians also finds that an overwhelming majority want more oil and gas drilling, even if it undermines Net Zero emissions.
The numbers are so stark, that even 47% of Labor voters support oil and gas exploration. If the Opposition makes this an election issue, the Labor party will bleed voters. But the Liberals are vulnerable too. If they don’t champion oil and gas exploration, they will bleed votes to the Nationals and One Nation.
It’s not surprising that Australians are so willing to drop Net Zero. Hardly anyone ever really cared about this abstract UN policy. Last year half the country didn’t want to spend a single cent more to reach Net Zero targets and 83% didn’t want us to raise the target (which the Labor government then did anyway).
Policies that are the opposite of what 80% of the voters want aren’t supposed to happen in a Democracy, yet the Labor Party did it anyway…
Some people have complained they One Nation or other rational conservative parties don’t have extensive policy documents (I don’t know if they do or not).
But policies don’t need to be extensive or drawn up by highly overpaid “Big Four” consultancy teams to make a 450 page tome that no one ever reads, they just need to be top level concepts. The free marketplace, when it’s allowed to exist, will do the rest.
In the case of oil and gas exploration the policy needs to be no more complicated than TRUMP’s “drill baby drill” along with a commitment to removing the numerous impediments to doing just about anything in Australia such as green tape, red tape, lawfare, false land rights and sacred sites claims, violent Leftist protesters and saboteurs, false claims of ecological exclusiveness, feral unions, false claims of catastrophic anthropogenic global warning so we shouldn’t use hydrocarbons., also change laws so land owners own minerals rights under their land, etc..
Also a commitment to get stuff done in a reasonable timeframe, not the typical 10 or 20 year timeframe of most non-green large projects. Australia can’t wait that long and doesn’t have too much time until economic collapse due to energy poverty.
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What you suggest/want would be wonderful to see – in Australia, and very much here in the Septic Isles!!
Unfortunately, it is still >38 months [maximum] to our next General Election ….
And despite all the kerfuffle over SUr StUrmUr’s mUltiple U-turns, and appointment of the serial resigner Mandelson as Ambassador to Washington before a Security Vetting had even started, it is likely that he will remain Prime Minister [which means the delightful Miliband, a malevolent version of your Mr. Bowen, stays Secretary of State at ‘Energy Security’].
There seems to be no one candidate the Labour Party thinks would be ‘as good as’ the useless Sur Sturmur.
If there was, there will be a vacancy at Number 10 on 8th May, after almost certainly grim, possibly disastrous, local council elections, plus Wales’ and Scotland’s ‘Wee Pretendy Parliaments’ on 7th May.
But, as there ain’t such a candidate – we’re lumbered with him …
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” There seems to be no one candidate the Labour Party thinks would be ‘as good as’ the useless Sur Sturmur.”
The reason would be he’s as good as it gets, how sad is that, it’s the same in OZ.
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Yes, the standard of candidate in Parliamentary elections here is not all that high – many seem to be ‘Spads’ – Special Advisers, who have never had a ‘real job’.
And it shows.
I think it is the local party selection process – but we seem stuck with it.
Unhappily.
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It’s shocking to think that Albo Sleazy (Australia), Carnage (Canada) and Sur Sturmer (UK) are the “finest” PMs each country is capable of producing…
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Installed – have to be. How else do three major countries end up with the same inept but evil leadership doing EXACTLY the same things?
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How much of it is the ‘Leadership’?
And how much is it the Civil service, especially those at or near, Permanent Secretary – the effective ‘professional’ head of a department like Energy, Transport, Education, Treasury or Foreign Affairs?
Whilst the UK, certainly, is not blessed with a second Churchill as leader [and I wasn’t impressed with WEF-Carney when he was pretending to run the Bank of England …], I feel that the administrative class probably has been either infiltrated or brainwashed.
Or both …
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I invoke Godwin’s Law and refer to Keir Starmer by the name Der Sturmer.
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Drill baby drill for the (election) win!
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One Nation have policies on everything (not the 450 page ones but great ideas) on everything I can think of which we as Australian people have wanted for decades. These can be fleshed out as necessary.
https://www.onenation.org.au/issues
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https://www.onenation.org.au/issues
Family Tax
Free Speech
Government spending
Water- farming , fisheries, forestry
Housing
Jobs and infrastructure
Cost of living measures
CLIMATE -Energy -Net zero impacts- Embracing Australian coal, embracing Australian gas, embracing nuclear & hydro
Citizen Initiated Referenda
Foreign ownership
Family Law & Child support
Education
Immigration
Multinational taxation
Firearms ownership
Health
and more..
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It’s not just that Australians don’t want to be held hostage to events overseas. Australia under Labor/Liberal Lite are now $1Trillion in debt. For no good reason.
With our resources we should be one of the richest countries in the world, not a million million dollars in debt with rampant inflation.
But politicians have banned forever the use of our own resources for ourselves. Bans on nuclear from our own uranium, exploring for fossil fuel, fracking, shale oil, coal seam gas, everything they can imagine. In Victoria even the State Electricity Commission, the developer of our very cheap brown coal energy which still runs the state, is banned in the Victorian Constitution from developing energy from ‘fossil fuels’. Why? It is indistinguishable from a government which just wants to impoverish Australia.
One of our two biggest exports and we are not allowed use coal ourselves? By what logic is that sensible managment? How does that support Net Zero even?
And we keep legally giving the country away to Aborigines and the very tiny Torres Strait islanders. On the absured idea of ‘finders keepers’ which has never been law anywhere in the history of the planet. Now we have added that aborigines own the ‘water and the sky’, as in New Zealand. Raising the idea that we could soon be taxed for drinking water from our own dams.
The attack on Australia is not from any foreign power, but from politicians. And for no reason I understand. So it is either corruption or idiocy or both. It is certainly not an environmental agenda. We are just another cheap source of energy and minerals for China, like Venezuela, Iran, Africa. With the full coooperation of people like Daniel Andrews, Malcolm Turnbull, Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong. Totally financially insulated from the consequences of their action. So far. And two of them expect bronze statues in their honour.
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Basically: TREASON.
As Marcus Tullius Cicero pointed out a few years back:
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through
all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear”
“Garn, Marcus; tell us what you really think”.
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Bruce, courtesy of Thomas Sowell…….
“The barbarians are not at the gates,
They are inside the gates !
and have academic tenure,
government grants.
Judicial Appointments,
and control of the movies,
Television, and other media……”
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Worst of all Murray, they have have access to the most vulnerable of the population starting off in life. OUR CHILDREN. The communists always have proclaimed “ give us a child for 7 years to mould into the next communist generation!! Or words to that effect! It’s happening at the moment in State Schools!!!
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That’ll be those dastardly Jesuit commies:
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Graham
I hate to invoke Godwin’s Law, but Hitler said the same thing, complete with photo of him and a young Hitler Youth.
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Says it all, doesn’t it BJ??
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“With our resources we should be one of the richest countries in the world, not a million million dollars in debt with rampant inflation.”
With our valuable resources being exported, we shouldn’t even be paying income tax, we should only pay tax on what we spend, which nowadays is high enough anyway, more people would want to work because what you earned was yours to spend, this would open up the economy, reduce unemployment, they could run a power station for a year on the tax laws, old returns etc, half the tax dept could be shut down, saving more govt expense.
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That is an accurate description of the wealthy country Australia with most assets not being exploited.
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Even Iran and UAE have working nuclear power stations! But we are not allowed have them. Why?
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If we virtuously sit on our resources for too long, eventually someone will come to exploit them for us.
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Labor won’t change policy, they cannot. Unless…
They rely on gan green preferences to get over the line at the moment, which means they cannot possibly support an expansion in the FF Industry.
But what if they imported enough “people of Middle Eastern Appearance” to offset the green vote? Scary? Realistic? Possibly not.
Anyway, the Libs, Nats and ON HAVE to make this an Election issue. It’s nice to see that they are preferencing each other in Farrer which will hopefully get ON over the line.
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As was pointed out recently in the UK, they imported MEA peoples who voted for them due to the Government’s largesse (with OPM).
Then, when enough MEA people were able to vote in their own MEA councillors and politicians, they turned against the pollies that brought them into the country.
Look for the same to occur in Oz, if not already happening.
.
[MEA – Middle East & African? OPM – Other people’s money? – Raquel]
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John in OZ, YOU ARE REALLY SAYING you understand what the population replacement policies of the Socialists / Marxists of the world want to achieve.
This is being driven by the United Nations / World Economic Forum which have governments signing up to agreements without the knowledge of the electorates.
It’s more than obvious in Australia. The most disturbing fact is that it’s perpetrated by both major political parties!!
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Yet Australia exports lots of coal and gas that makes Australia a wealthy country.
And then we export jobs as Australia is too costly to make anything.
Its time – drill, baby, drill!
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After 25 years employment and in senior executive positions, the second half as Managing Director of that publicly listed company subsidiary, profitable and consistently three times industry average operating profit based on Dun & Bradstreet surveys, a management buyout offer was made by the Board of Directors because the manufacturing businesss that had been a useful source of revenue was not a fit with the direction the group was taking, and finance arrangements were offered. A business plan indicated that with the continuing government regulations and compliance costs, taxes, industrial relations laws, imports, that a maybe 10-15 year window of opportunity remained for profitable operations and then closure of factories and a huge expenditure liability retrenching people and removing machinery to meet Lease requirements, enormous reinforced concrete holes in floors, etc
The Business Plan indicated that after interest and tax the profits would not in the long run cover the expenses to be incurred in factory closures and changing business direction, example Importing and warehousing stock and not having the flexibility of production equipment for special order requirements.
I remained with the company after it was sold to a multinational group and then took voluntary retirement after two years. About ten years later the factories were shut down.
And that’s before the transition to renewable energy of Rudd-Gillard Labor 2007-2013.
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Only 57% support more exploration?
That’s about the average IQ of Australians.
The economy will need to tank before this mob will wake up.
Rather depressing.
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57%? That’s a lie.
We were told most people supported YES for aborigines. All governments, all media, all big business, all organizations.
We were told Hilary Clinton was certain to be the President.
We were told Kamala Harris was a certainty.
The legacy media lie to us all the time.
Trump is a crook, a liar, a traitor. He can do no good. He has lost the war against Iran. No one can stop massive illegal immigration. No one can stop the boats.
None of that was true! I would suggest 90% of Australians want more domestic oil, gas, coal, wealth, manufacturing.
And no one wants a 35% CO2 tax on all fossil fuels, currently National law. Death of a thousand hidden illegal taxes.
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I am wondering, looking at what Jo wrote above, whether that should be 75%? It seems to make more logical sense, from the context of what she has written.
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A scientist by definition is a sceptic who wants proof. Greens do not. That’s why it is a religion.
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It is fair to say 75% don’t oppose oil and gas exploration. The important thing there is that if a party promises to drill baby drill, it will only turn off 25% of the voters (who probably would never have voted for them anyway).
Thus it is extremely low risk to offer that as an election promise.
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But how much higher would the “drill baby drill” vote would be if the voters actually looked up the data?
Just about everything we’ve been told by the liars and con merchants is a pack of BS and lies and the endless waste of billions of $ will not make a scrap of difference to our weather or climate by 2050 or 2100.
Again how many voters understand we live in the safest period in Human history and the use of fossil fuels have changed a very dangerous world into a very safe world? Just look up the data.
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Again, here’s the death rates per 100,000 from 1900 to 2025 and even Dr Pielke jr admits that 2025 was the safest year since 1900.
Just 1.6 billion people at risk in 1900 and 2.5 billion in 1950 and 8.2 billion at risk in 2025.
So why are death rates so low today?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/natural-disaster-death-rates?country=Flood~Extreme+weather~Wildfire~Drought~Extreme+temperature
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My votes would go to massive advances in monitoring and early warning, massive advances and wider availability of telecommunications and massive advances in medical science.
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We do? It has never before been the case that two men could fight a war that annihilates virtually all of the human race merely by pressing buttons. Every weapon that has been invented has always eventually been used. Then there are rogue laboratories pursuing gain-of-function research into viruses.
What has happened is that wars have grown bigger and more infrequent. We simply live between WW2 and WW3. My advice is to make the most of it!
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Anton I was only referring to death rates from extreme weather events since 1900, not extreme, deliberate killing of people during wars since 1900.
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OK! In that case I agree with you.
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Vote Labor….we all…get….HARD LABOR !!!!!
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Labor have lost the plot. I expect Albanese and Wong actually hate Australia and Australians. The political class have lost all sight of right and wrong and fair.
They are in it for what they can get and to get into the UN if possible, as Helen Clarke did after her Carbon Tax. And Julia Gillard tried to do.
Money, power, fame and luxury retirement without having to do any more than reach the top of the greasy pole.
All you have to do is impoverish your country and send all the money to China. That explains all the last 26 years.
I would be surprised if net zero made any sense to anyone. It is an excuse, not a reason.
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“Labor have lost the plot. ”
How can they even be called the “Labour Party”. Look up the net worth of Labours front bench, look up how many are career politicians. Look up how many have actually held down a “Labourers job” ( none) and yet they market themselves as looking after the little man that has to do hard graft. Even Arthur Caldwell, who at least looked like he has had a hard life was a career politician. I know old school labour voters, welded on, still thinking that the “Labour” party is looking after them. Biggest scam in Australian politics.
It’s like casting an imitation fly to a trout. Looks to good to be real, guess what, it isn’t.
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That’s why they changed the spelling from Labour to Labor, because their ideologies and policies had nothing to do with enhancing / protecting the “Labouring classes”, yet they managed to fool the masses and media for the last 40+ years that they were still for the working man & woman while implementing every Fabian /Marxist ideology they could.
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The “Australian Labor Party” – “an iron clad guarantee to take “U” out of work”
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“They are in it for what they can get and to get into the UN if possible, as Helen Clarke did after her Carbon Tax. And Julia Gillard tried to do.”
The UN only wants you if you are a dedicated leftie and can show proof you have trashed your country and its economy.
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Reality meets Ideology and Reality will win in the end.
Emissions Impossible.
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If we can convince the 22% who are undecided, that CO2 doesn’t cause global warming, then it’ll be all over bar the shouting.
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Representative democracy responds to a situation in which the major parties have identical and unpopular policies via the creation of a new party to break the consensus – perhaps initially by holding the balance of power. C’mon Aussie, get it off the ground! We in England would cheer.
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Short video:
TRUMP says “drill baby, drill”.
https://youtube.com/shorts/TGTg8MwN4dU
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We Aussies are all big fans of the Mad Max movies with Mel Gibson. I think in the US those films were rebadged ” Road Warrior”. Certainly became a cult film in the US and made ol’ Mel famous. In those films it depicts what happens when the fuel supply is compromised. Basically, the whole of society goes feral and the people are separated into warring gangs. Lawlessness is the rule. “We” would prefer that didn’t happen, thank you. Drill baby drill and may more tankers with diesel and fertiliser arrive soon.
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It’s very appropriate that Mad Max was made on the roads of Australia’s most communist, dysfunctional state, Australia’s equivalent of California, Sicktoria.
Opening narration of Mad Max.
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“The set of Mad Max was primarily filmed in Victoria, Australia, particularly around the city of Melbourne. This location was chosen to create the film’s memorable post-apocalyptic landscape. ”
Apocalyptic sounds about right.
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Thanks David. That’s brilliant. I have now copied and pasted to a note, so I’ve always got it. I like the tenor of that piece because it indicates that things actually improve 🙂
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Me too!
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“it depicts what happens when the fuel supply is compromised”
or toilet paper
.
[A reply to Ross at #11 – Raquel]
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I don’t think the Liberal Party (fake conservative) are pushing sufficient, adequate or aggressive enough pro-energy policies.
They also still refuse to announce their withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. If they would do that they would prove their committed to energy. As usual they are fence-sitting, abandoning strict adherence to Net Zero 2050 but staying in the Agreement… They want to have it both ways which is why they can’t get elected.
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As Adam Bandt said to me, “you tell people what they want to hear. When you get power, you do what you want”.
The Late Graham Richardson put it more succinctly. “whatever it takes”.
They are just different teams all on the same side, their side. Our political class has only contempt for Australians.
When criminals are let out of jail on a technicality, the political classes used their own rules to put an innocent naive Pauline Hanson in jail. That was the Liberal party under John Howard.
To me that means she is genuine.
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Don’t forget that most of the rules they place us under do not apply to politicians.
Any regulation that has exemptions, especially for those making the rules, should be cancelled and/or never proposed in the first place.
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The One Nation court case was a Queensland matter and initiated by the Queensland Electoral Commission, nothing to do with Federal Government, Labor Queensland Governmemt in office at that time. There was of course interest in the matter on both sides of politics. The Howard Government asked Cabinet Minister Abbott to monitor the situation and they did arrange legal expenses to be paid on behalf of a witness, the whistleblower.
Here is the history;
https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SCULawRw/2004/6.pdf
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Howard was rabidly anti Hanson for the last 25 years. It hardly matters if they used State or Federal laws to put her in jail. She was exonerated and released. But the intent was there. And that went to the top.
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The Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) is responsible for conducting state and local government elections in Queensland, ensuring fair electoral processes and maintaining the electoral roll. It operates under the Electoral Act 1992 and aims to promote public understanding of the democratic system.
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Queensland Electoral Commission investigated.
Queensland Police investigated the complaint from QEC
Queensland Department of Public Prosecutions referred the two people to a Queensland Court of Law
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Angus Taylor’s Stance on the Paris Climate Agreement
Opposition to the Agreement
Angus Taylor has consistently voted against the Paris Climate Agreement. This indicates a clear opposition to the federal government’s commitment to the agreement’s objectives, which aim to limit global warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Voting Record Overview
The following table summarizes Taylor’s voting behavior regarding the Paris Climate Agreement:
Vote Type Angus Taylor’s Vote Agreement Score
Most Important Votes Against 0%
Less Important Votes Various 1%
Implications of His Position
Taylor’s opposition suggests that he does not support the measures typically associated with the agreement, which may include commitments to reduce carbon emissions and transition to renewable energy sources. This stance aligns with a broader skepticism about climate policies within certain factions of the Liberal Party.
theyvoteforyou.org.au
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History is soon forgotten, particularly in politics and emotional responses based often on prejudices …
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-08/coalition-to-dump-paris-emissions-target-focus-nuclear/103955342
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He needs to EXPLICITLY ANNOUNCE that the Liberals are withdrawing from it.
Why can’t he show some leadership and do it?
Because he wants the Libs to sit on the fence on that and every other issue.
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Andrew Hastie also voted consistently against the Paris Climate Agreement, there is nothing more they can do until in government.
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They can announce that they intend to withdraw right now, just as TRUMP did.
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I have pointed out a few times the political ramifications of just about anything the left disagrees with, protest and blocking, Labor Greens Teals.
You must have noticed the pile on, relentless negativity, whenever the Coalition announces a policy, consider Dutton Plan and nuclear power stations, 5 large and 2 small to be built on existing locations using existing transmission lines. Unfortunately the people who say they are against the left politics join in often and we read that prejudice here often
Try to imagine the campaign that Labor Green Teals would use if there was more than a Coalition opposition to the Paris Agreement already announced.
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President Trump made that announcement and decision after being elected to that high office
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The Coalition doesn’t have to follow Trump, you may have noticed he’s on the nose down under.
Taylor and Hastie are on track to pull out of Paris when they get elected.
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Opposition to the Agreement
Angus Taylor has consistently voted against the Paris Climate Agreement. This indicates a clear opposition to the federal government’s commitment to the agreement’s objectives
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We still need to remember that people voted for this outcome and it could get far worse. Even without the Hormuz Strait issue, one in 3 families now use food bank and the leading cause into our poverty epidemic are the CC and net zero policies. People have glued themselves to roadways, tied themselves to train tracks and protested loudly and often violently, among a long list of other exploits, just to make sure that we ended up a basket case, because what else was going to happen when you kill off your energy production and make everything unaffordable ?. And, conservative voices that warned for years and years of the looming disaster were silenced or ridiculed away.
Thus, I think there is a great irony unfolding that many of those who voted for the creation of this great tragedy are now having second thoughts as we enter the middle stages of this journey to hell. They say you can’t fix stupid and to prove this point we have Albo and Bowen on our TV screens every day begging foreign leaders for more oil and fertiliser and at the same time telling us we need to transition away from these very products. And all the while not one plan is announced to drill a single well or store one more barrel on these shores, from the people running the show.
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At last Dr Pielke jr proves that renewables are not renewable and all W & S + batteries are just more economy crippling BS and lies.
He supplies a lot of data and graphs to prove his case and even clueless donkeys like Albo and B O Bowen etc should be able to understand the data.
So let’s drill baby drill and ASAP.
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/renewables-are-not-renewable
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Dr Pielke jr completed this post after listening to US energy Secretary Chris Wright and the last sentence says it all. Here’s his quote…..
“Note: I’m writing from Houston this week while I am attending CERAWeek. Today’s post is one that I’ve been contemplating for a while. I was motivated to finish it after hearing remarks by U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright earlier this week on the importance of process heat in industry. I often include a line in my talks about how wind turbines and solar panels cannot be made using energy generated by wind and solar. Today I formalize that argument, and it is eye opening. —RP”
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Here are the materials sourced by Dr Pielke jr from OWI Data.
And all of that requires fossil fuels to dig up the tons of different materials.
So why has this taken 30 + years to understand?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/materials-low-carbon-electricity
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What do people expect? Australia’s political system is, according to AI, a:
But then there’s one State, in particular, that goes to the next level and operates as a kleptocracy.
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This, from Geoff Chambers’s piece in The Australian seems a bit thin:
Sure, lots of people want new refineries, in just the same way as all the mice agree that the cat should wear a bell.
We pointed at SA dynamiting their last coal power station and called them fools. Meanwhile we’ve watched as the industrial areas of east coast cities have been “gentrified”. That seems a harder problem than a tumbled power station. Who’s volunteering to have their land value plummet as their suburb gets “de-gentrified”? Take back Kurnell, say, and listen to everyone around Botany Bay complain about the view, the noise, the danger.
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Therefore forget areas away from suburban areas, coal fired power stations were all moved away when the second generation were built following creation of Environmental Protection Agencies and Laws.
However now environment does not matter as renewables building takes place.
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Dennis,
Reality check. Crude oil arrives by ship so a port will be involved. Most of our ports have been gentrified (even Port Kembla). So now you either put the new refinery in the gentrified suburb, or pipe/truck the crude through the suburbs to wherever you’ve sited the refinery. The gentry won’t like it.
Your example of the power stations is off the mark. They moved for economic reasons, not environmental. As electricity use increased, it made sense to move the power stations to the coal fields because it became cheaper to string wires than to transport the coal to the city power stations. When NSW had power shortages in the early ’80s, they had Pyrmont Power Station running despite it being in the inner city.
The power station rationale would say to put any refineries near our oil fields, which would be reasonable enough if it weren’t for the fact most of our oil supply comes by ship.
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In much the same manner as people now wanting a return to oil and gas exploration and mining, I have an opinion that if the differences between methods of power generation were actually explained to people (I know, in a manner that can be readily understood ….. almost impossible really) then there would be a groundswell of returning support for the mining of our abundant coal for the purposes of power generation.
Now, just like how essential liquid fuels are here in Australia, exactly the same applies to power generation, and the mainstay of that here in Australia is coal fired power, and without that coal fired power, Australia just ….. stops! Literally!
Oh, and if any of you wish to know exactly how coal ‘becomes’ electricity, you can read it here at this link to my own Post on the Millmerran Power Plant.
Tony.
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Driving through Rokewood in Victoria on my work travels yesterday. There is a large wind installation being built in the area which has been going on for a couple of years. Not sure of the number of turbines, but it must be up to 100 by now. Accompanies other wind installs in that general area. (Geelong :Ballarat :Warrnambool triangle roughly). Was thinking they shut Hazelwood Power Station down a few years ago. It was 1800 MW electricity generation basically 24/7/365. So 80 % capacity factor if you calculate possible down times due to maintenance and breakdowns etc. Each wind turbine is 3-5 MW production. So, on a direct comparison that would be 400 wind turbines, give or take, required to equal the old Hazelwood output. Except it isn’t ,because the CF of wind is barely 30%. So, triple that figure in easily understood terms for the populace. So, around 1200 turbines required to replace Hazelwood. Whoever thought that would be a good idea? It doesn’t make sense mathematically, physically or economically. It’s all been a huge con and AGW/ man made climate change is an even bigger scam.
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Environmental benefits
If you are serious about meeting our international climate change targets, then you must include zero emission nuclear as part of your energy mix. Zero emission nuclear power plants produce no air pollution or carbon emissions.
Zero emission nuclear power plants also use much less land and raw materials than large scale renewable projects. For instance, a next generation nuclear power station, including all auxiliary buildings and the security perimeter would cover about 45 acres (roughly the size of a mid-sized shopping centre). For every MWh of electricity produced:
Wind requires 360 times more land than nuclear.
Solar requires 75 times more land than nuclear.
In addition, unlike a modern nuclear plant, which can be plugged into the existing grid, Labor’s expensive renewables-only grid requires up to 28,000km of new transmission lines.
By reducing impacts on our landscape, zero-emissions nuclear will not only protect regional communities, but our environment and wildlife.
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1200 turbines that can and will all easily be becalmed by the same large high pressure system.
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Thanks Tony. I read your article and learned a lot. Although I have often used the term “super critical” when talking to lefties about the benefits of modern coal fired power plants, I had no idea how they were constructed or how they work. Now I do. And I am very impressed. Thanks again.
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Meanwhile the UK’s barking mad Miliband loony still believes that W & S are the cheapest way to generate electricity.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2026/04/21/miliband-doubles-down-on-net-zero/
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Donald Trump announced the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change in June 2017, claiming it would undermine the U.S. economy. This withdrawal officially took effect on November 4, 2020, but the U.S. rejoined the agreement under President Joe Biden in January 2021.
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FWIW
“Resourceful Earth Day: Fred Smith on Julian Simon”
“Editor’s Note: Today has been celebrated since 1970 as Earth Day. With the Progressive Left all but abandoning its significance, the opportunity is to rebrand April 22nd as Resourceful Earth Day. Human ingenuity, despite Statism, has proven optimist/realist Julian Simon correct, as noted by CEI founder and longtime head Fred Smith in this 1999 tribute.
“The problems of famine, overpopulation, poverty, and disease are resolvable. In fact, they have been resolved in the United States and other places where human ingenuity is free to solve them.” ”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/04/22/resourceful-earth-day-fred-smith-on-julian-simon-2/
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It is well over 26 years since I first had doubts about the “green revolution” and around 20 since I really understood the lack of science and became a staunch sceptic. And, the one truism I’ve discovered is this: it doesn’t matter how solid the evidence, whether it is climate, covid or even now the vaccines, we constantly see the same behaviour which is denial and lies for decades.
At this point, whilst the public have certainly lost their appetite for the climate rubbish being pushed as “science”, there is not the slightest sign of any change amongst the public paid “scientists” who created this scandal. NOTHING HAS CHANGED. They are all still there denying every wrong they did.
We, or at least Iran and Trump’s stupidity, have beaten the climate monster, but we haven’t won the war and restored the rigour that should always have been the bedrock of “climate science”. Instead, we seem to be uncovering more and more areas of rot, where the “science” has no rigour at all.
The corrupt science and “thumb on the scales” of the temperature data, is still there just as much as ever. All that has changed, is the public don’t care about it. We now see the same practices being used by Big Pharma to hide inconvenient studies and tip the scales of the results. And, these scandals are being revealed, just as the internet is being increasingly monitored and censored by huge corps that are working for profit, not working for truth and credibility in science. So it will be increasingly easy to hide the next scandal, because no one will be able to talk about it!
I can’t see a way to restore credible science either in the climate or other areas like medicine. So, whilst we defeated this particular monster, there are certainly other’s lurking in the shadows that will cause even more damage, destroy even more lives and be just as unstoppable for decades.
Sorry, I think “scientific progress” has been killed dead in most areas by the corruption of science we saw in the climate scandal. And now we see the rest of the world is overtaking us. We as a society allowed this corruption, and now that corruption is really hurting us with long term economic decline a strong likelihood.
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Its been a few years since the vote on The Voice but the lesson from that was that even when the left seem to control the narrative a concerted, determined campaign can not only destroy that narrative but swing opinion on other issues as well. The failure of the the Libs to provide an opposing view to the leftist narrative has left a huge gap being filled by One Nation. All the Libs had to do was put the arguments but were destroyed from within by the left of their party that controlled its agenda. The Matt Keans and Malcolm Turnbull started it and others have finished them off.
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