Without wishing to pour more fuel on the net zero fire, I am pleased to say that the Nationals WA party room have voted to move away from the Government’s net zero climate targets.
The parliamentary National Party will now bring a motion to the State Council on November 22 calling on delegates to cast their votes.
At the outset, it is important to underscore that this decision is not a fait accompli.
We do not automatically rubber stamp decisions made by our federal counterparts.
I highlight this distinction because issues such as “net zero” deserve this deep discourse and robust debate.
It is important that this discussion is based on qualified information and a solid dose of common sense.
As it stands, the Albanese Government has locked in a policy to meet net zero emissions by 2050.
This has been overlaid with legislated targets of 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030, and a further target of a 62-70 per cent reduction by 2035.
Just for the record, net zero stands for balancing greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere against the greenhouse gases removed from it. It does not mean taking away all emissions entirely, which would be scientifically considered impossible.
A just-completed paper by Canberra’s Page Research Centre indicates that Australia is not only way off in meeting its future targets, but also destroying the country’s economy along with it.
The facts are these:
- Nationally average quarterly power bills have spiralled; an increase masked in Western Australia by government control of pricing to households and small business. This is well understood by larger customers.
- Australia has lost more than 7000 heavy industry jobs since 2020.
- Ninety-five per cent of Australia’s emissions reductions have not been generated by clean technology but from land use restrictions and changes. These have limited our farmers ability to use their land in a productive way.
- Thousands of hectares are being converted into subsidised energy estates, and landowners are facing new restrictions on aerial spraying, irrigation and machinery use near transmission easements.
- Wildlife corridors and water catchments are being re-zoned by random renewables energy projects.
- Australia, which delivers just one per cent of global emissions, is now delivering CO2 reductions at nearly twice the rate of comparable economies and four times the pace of global averages
There are hundreds of other supporting facts which make our collective decision this week, what they call in climate science as, “a no brainer.”
As a party which prides itself on reason, our parliamentarians have agreed that they could not, in good conscience, support targets which are now crippling peoples’ ability to put food on the table and (literally) keep the lights on.
Simply, the Government’s pursuit of these climate targets is unachievable.
We are suddenly in an ironic situation in which we are destroying the environment to save the environment. Explain that to your grandchildren.
Net zero has shamefully become the new shorthand for a cost-of-living crisis which is scandalous and out of control.
This is patently criminal in a state which injects $150 billion annually into the national economy and supplies three in 10 jobs.
Canberra’s climate burden has now been passed on to hardworking Western Australians and it’s time to rip off the band-aid and return to basics.
This week, we have moved a step closer to abandoning “net zero” on the basis that it delivers “net nothing” to our people.
It is time to restore the covenant between people and the land.