Net zero underpinned by politics rather than sound policies

Anthony Albanese appears to be the author of his own doom. His career centres on politics rather than policy. By turning our country backwards on industrial relations and increasing the costs for childcare and aged-care providers simply to please his union masters, he started a new cost-of-living crisis. When these were added to the unworkable costs of net zero and unfettered immigration, a perfect storm was born.

In the beginning, Albanese claimed it was international factors at play, but after more than three years we are now headed into very difficult times. Devoid of policy, the Prime Minister will once again begin a new spin cycle, but he’s running out of people to blame.

Robert Walker, Cessnock, NSW

It’s time for the secretive Albanese government to come clean and tell the public what they may have known all along – that the net zero by 2050 target is politically motivated and unachievable.

It always has been, and will remain so, at the current rate of renewables take-up, which is running well behind schedule to meet the government’s target of 82 per cent of the grid by 2030. Contrary to what the government wants us to believe, emissions reduction in Australia is not proceeding according to plan. To add insult to injury, the government has approved extensions to the North West Shelf gas project and many new mining projects, which is diametrically opposite to what it is trying to achieve. It appears as though the government’s right hand does not know what its left hand is doing. When is the Albanese government finally going to stop conning the public about its net-zero targets?

Mario Stivala, Belconnen, ACT

Just over 100 years ago, the first rumblings of the evidence for a whole new scientific field became known, that of quantum mechanics, which turned classical physics on its head. To those who insist on any science being set in stone, tell them that’s not so, and quote the seminal and magisterial work of Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli and others.

Prue Sheldrick, Peppermint Grove, WA

I am sick and tired of politicians and bureaucrats telling me that renewables are the cheapest form of energy.

How much will the thousands of wind turbines, millions of solar panels and thousands of kilometres of transmission lines cost?

We are now told that solar panels and wind turbines have a limited lifespan and will need replacing within 10 to 15 years, resulting in a massive landfill problem. When quizzed on the cost of all this, all we hear is political spin.

John Lowther, Orange, NSW

The federal government is sending contradictory messages about natural gas (“Energy elites in denial over collapse of net-zero support”, 28/11).

On the one hand, its Future Gas Strategy, released in May 2024, acknowledges that gas is essential to the energy transition and critical to our economy. On the other hand, its newly strengthened environmental legislation makes gas developments harder to approve, stripping them of expedited pathways and subjecting projects to even more scrutiny.

Add to this the uncertainty created by net-zero targets, and investors are left wondering whether Australia is a viable place to commit capital. Energy policy cannot succeed if it points in two directions at once.

Whether future gas supplies materialise will ultimately depend on investor confidence, and investors are perfectly capable of moving their money to jurisdictions that value energy security.

Unless the government reconciles these contradictions, the outcome is inevitable: Australia will talk about the importance of gas while relying increasingly on imports, such as the LNG import terminal at Port Kembla in NSW, forfeiting both economic benefits and control of its own energy future.

Don McMillan, Paddington, Qld

There is a vast range of sensible policies between the extremes of full fossil fuel and full renewables.

Sensible policies such as allowing nuclear energy, with sensible safety standards, and a reformed national electricity market that makes a level playing field for base­load and intermittent generators could actually set a useful example rather than a cautionary tale for other countries.

James McDonald, Annandale, NSW