Aim to be an energy-lucky country, not economic wasteland

Scott Morrison is right (“Morrison’s intervention over net-zero ‘ideology’ ”, 30/10). Australia’s climate goals should be aspirational and not locked into short-term political targets without engineering, life-cycle analysis, cost and benefit evaluations. Australia should properly study all options for using our abundant natural advantages and resources, and immediately stop the economic and environmental devastation.

Options include solar and wind, where justified, as well as high-efficiency, low-emissions coal, gas, and then nuclear as the one zero-carbon tiny-footprint fully scalable answer if electricity demands rise. While the proper engineered assessments are done, we should fill in the shortfall with the abundant gas reserves locked up by states, and then build an energy system for the future that will make Australia the lucky country again instead of a bankrupt wasteland with no industries and a devastated environment if Labor continues.

Ian Brake, Mackay, Qld

Former Treasury assistant secretary David Pearl has pointed out that at the heart of the Albanese government’s case for net zero is a fantasy (“Moderate tinkering won’t change fact net zero is a dud”, 30/10). Net zero can only be achieved through massive expansion of the state, burgeoning bureaucratic interference in the economy and in our lives as well as the marshalling of legislation and regulation to control every aspect of Australian production.

Ian Dunlop, Tea Gardens, NSW

The net-zero debate tearing at the Coalition’s cohesion is surely avoidable with a sensible approach to the debate (“Morrison alert on net-zero ‘ideology’ ”, 30/10). If the majority of members agree with the net-zero philosophy, why can they not agree with the concept, while acknowledging the detrimental result of Australia’s unilateral rush to abandon low-cost fossil fuel energy. Surely a Coalition policy of agreeing with the net-zero concept and committing to its adoption when the major pollution contributors (the US, China and India) commit and act.

Alan Slade, Dover Heights, NSW

This government has overseen continued increases to cost of living, causing a growing burden on ordinary Australians. Electricity prices, purchasing power and living costs continue to rise, pensioners are struggling to make ends meet, and families are cutting back on basics. These pressures are being compounded by the government’s pursuit of net-zero policies, which are forcing small businesses to the wall and major industries, such as Tomago Aluminium, to face closure due to unreliable and costly energy supply. This raises a fundamental question: Who actually benefits from these policies?

Tim Abrams, Beecroft, NSW

Scott Morrison’s recommendation for Sussan Ley to stick with a net-zero aspiration while gutting laws to reach the goal by 2050, is each-way speak. Indeed, as David Pearl concludes in his excellent article, the Libs must “resist the siren song of a halfway house position, which will be seen through by intelligent voters everywhere, exacerbate policy uncertainty and play into Labor’s hands”. The Ley-led Libs would be well advised to abandon Morrison’s adoption of net zero, not retain it, because millions of voters appreciate that two wrongs don’t make a right.

Mandy Macmillan, Singleton, NSW

Another former PM weighs in on the net-zero debate. The level of government intervention is important in complex issues like climate change. Labor clearly intervenes by subsidising renewables. Liberal ideology leans more towards the free market, where possible. That was the climate policy of the Morrison government at the 2022 election. It supported “technology not taxation”. This balance may now suit Liberals who want targets to be aspirational, not legislated. One contrast between Morrison and Peter Dutton is their attitudes to nuclear power. Morrison’s 2019 parliamentary inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy, led by Angus Taylor, did not lead to the lifting of the existing federal moratorium on nuclear. In contrast, Dutton promised a subsidised nuclear program, if he had won in 2025. Sussan Ley has to find a compromise energy policy that will satisfy the ideology of moderate Liberals and anti-net zero Coalition MPs, plus, of course, the electorate.

John Hughes, Mentone, Vic