Energy Minister’s bluster can’t hide the flaws in energy transition

The Australian’s editorial on Thursday points to the consequences of the inflation spike, with a 37.1 per cent increase in electricity costs. It is proof that Labor’s renewables transition is failing. It’s not delivering affordable and reliable energy and has led to households falling into energy poverty and uncompetitive trade-exposed industries.

Bowen’s bravado and spin no longer work. The lived truth of the transition was always in people’s power bills. Labor’s 2030 targets won’t be met. That’s the consensus among energy experts.

Despite the billions spent in underwriting renewable projects, not one onshore wind project reached final investment decision this year. This shortfall in wind capacity is serious, as it’s needed to provide balance to the growth in solar energy. Anticipating supply gaps and threats of blackouts, market operator AEMO now wants a five-year notification of the closure of coal plants. The Albanese government is losing trust with the community the longer it fails to recognise the realities of a failing renewables transition.

Jennie George, Mollymook, NSW

It should be inconceivable that one man possesses the power currently held by Energy Minister Chris Bowen. He’s a fanatic when it comes to the development and use of renewables as the sole source of our energy requirements. The majority of overseas countries know this is a pipe dream and they are going down the path of renewables but backed up by other sources such as nuclear. It baffles me that Anthony Albanese allows Bowen to go off and do whatever he pleases in his misguided quest related to renewables. No one, least of all Bowen and Matt Kean, can tell us exactly when power bills are going to come down because of renewable energy.

Peter Surkitt, Sandringham, Vic

Glacier on a tea break

Recent changes to Australia’s environmental laws mean projects involving mining, coal and gas, including those once eligible for fast-tracking, will now face even stricter oversight. In particular, coal and gas developments have been stripped of any pathway to expedited approvals. This simply formalises the political paralysis we’ve been living with for years. Take Santos’s Narrabri Gas Project in NSW. It has endured nearly a decade of assessment and remains in limbo. If this is what “fast-tracking” looked like, one shudders to imagine the pace under the new laws. One suspects Santos’s management may allow themselves a wry chuckle: the government has finally confirmed what they already knew – that gas approvals in Australia move more slowly than a glacier on a tea break.

Don McMillan, Paddington, Qld

Talking the talk

At Malcolm Turnbull’s portrait unveiling, Anthony Albanese talked about a random act of kindness from the former PM, pontificating about the “sign of decency” in a place that is often characterised by “its lack of generosity”. Yet indecent and ungenerous treatment from the Albanese government continues to be meted out to former defence minister Linda Reynolds and her former chief of staff Fiona Brown. Reynolds and Brown have been found by two courts of law to have done nothing wrong, but their battle for government compensation for the trials under parliamentary privilege they have been unjustly subjected to is uphill, lengthy and ongoing. Albanese, as ever, talks the talk, but fails to walk it.

Mandy Macmillan, Singleton, NSW

Call that comedy?

Kudos to The Australian for revealing some questionable, to say the least, grants dished out by the Research Council. Among them $500,000 to find ways to incorporate Aboriginal dreamtime legend and culture into space exploration. And a similar amount for a study “using innovative theatre-based methods … to develop and evaluate performance techniques that allow ­machines to create authentic comedy”. Would that be comedy that is funny, that people laugh at? I’m guessing AI would do a better job than most humans who now identify as comedians would.

Peter O’Brien, Kiama, NSW

A different country

Editor-in-chief Michelle Gunn and her team deserve praise for the publication of A Different Country. Among major media outlets globally, The Australian has stood virtually alone as a beacon of moral clarity during one of the darkest periods for Jewish communities worldwide since the Holocaust. After October 7, we witnessed something unprecedented: a pogrom that killed over 1200 people was quickly overshadowed by false accusations against the victims. The release of A Different Country serves a crucial purpose. Future generations must have an accurate record of these two years – how quickly hatred resurfaces and how it transforms a country when others look away. The Australian did not look away.

John Kempler, Rose Bay, NSW