Why we need a cold shower after Albo’s Greens power deal
The PM once slammed the idea of any sort of coalition with the Greens. But by doing a deal with them over the great gas switch-off he’s written them a blank cheque, writes James Morrow.
Opinion
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Once upon a time, the very idea that Labor would in some way be in coalition with the Greens to make policy offended Anthony Albanese to his core.
Back in February he told the Labor caucus, “if we win government, we will implement our plan not negotiate with fringe groups.”
In May, he again slammed the idea of any sort of coalition with the Greens.
Labor won government in its own right, but guess what?
Rather than sidelining the Greens, he’s written them a blank cheque.
Literally hours before parliament was due to sit for Thursday’s one-day, million-dollar session to ram through an energy bill that has barely been released (“how’s the transparency?”, to coin a phrase) the Greens seem to have had an extraordinary win.
Namely, an “assistance package” to help get households to stop using gas hot water heaters and gas stoves and switch to electric appliances.
The cost of this great switch has not been specified, or at least announced – we mug punters will have to wait until the May budget to find out how much we are on the hook for.
And those with memories that go back even farther than the last election will recall that a decade ago, gas was being sold to us as a clean, green transition fuel as we groped our way to the sunlit uplands of net zero.
But perhaps this is being overly cynical.
How good will it be when families go back to electric hot water tanks and fight over whose selfishness left everyone else with cold showers?
Given the Greens’ involvement in this deal its surprising that there wasn’t a push to also restrict bathing daily, so perhaps this is their tricky backdoor manoeuvre.
Of course all those electric appliances will need to be powered somehow, which raises a few awkward questions of their own.
For one thing, energy market regulators are already warning of shortfalls next year (a euphemism for blackouts) as coal fired generators are chased out of Australia faster than a squirrel in the Griswolds’ Christmas tree.
At the moment though, at least in NSW, all those new electric appliances will be largely coal-powered.
As of Thursday morning 69 per cent of the state’s electricity over the past 24 hours coming from those evil black rocks that drive our economy, according to the National Energy Market website.
And given that in the third quarter of this year a grand total of one brand spanking new renewable energy project reached completion let’s not hold our breath (though at least that would cut carbon emissions!) and imagine that figure changing much any time soon.
It’s no secret that Australia is in a diabolical position here.
We are closing down or blocking stuff that works (coal and gas and nuclear) for stuff that doesn’t exist yet (countless acres of solar and wind farms and batteries and triple-redundant transmission grids).
At the same time we are now pushing to dump even more electricity-hungry appliances into the system.
Scott Morrison may be on the nose at the moment for everything from Robodebt to secret ministries but he repeatedly warned that if Australians voted Labor, they’d get the Greens.
His prophecy is looking increasingly prescient.
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