Reliable energy remains the key issue despite distractions

Commentators describe the top price estimate of $368bn for AUKUS subs as eye-watering, but this is also how much it might cost for wind and solar farms, batteries and pumped hydro and transmission lines to eliminate Australia’s 38 gigawatts of coal and gas generation. The Productivity Commission wants to secure net zero at the least possible cost to limit the productivity impact caused by climate change. This least cost will be huge, but it does not acknowledge that if Australia eliminates its 1.2 per cent of contribution to global CO2 emissions it will not register on the world’s climate.

Tim O’Brien, Lesmurdie, WA

How many more red-alert Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warnings do high-polluting, developed countries like Australia need to convince us that the climate change window of opportunity is rapidly closing? It’s unbelievable that we’re still subsidising fossil fuel industries and our delicately poised Earth can’t afford us the luxury of opening new coal and gas projects. Australian climate scientist Frank Jotzo says: “We are up the proverbial creek … but we have a paddle.” Instead of us complacent Aussies sailing along in cool oblivion, the moral imperative impels us to start paddling with intense desperation.

Kevin Burke, Sandringham, Vic

Thank you for your well-penned editorial, particularly with the emphasis on energy security, which NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean has failed to provide. Ideally, coal and gas-rich NSW should be the commonsense energy superpower state with a Liberal government seeking a fourth term offering incentives to attract investment in high-energy, low-emission technology and pledging to repeal state bans on nuclear energy. I wish. Labor’s virtue-signalling electric campaign bus couldn’t go the distance and is indicative of an inability to take energy seriously. The best outcome would be a returned Coalition, chastened by the inevitable looming lesson that Kean, more suited to the Greens, is the recruiting gift that keeps on giving to Mark Latham’s One Nation.

Mandy Macmillan, Singleton, NSW

Liberal MP Bridget Archer wants to see “ideology put aside” on climate (“Greens stall until state poll is done”, 24/3). Kudos to her. All parties should work constructively towards the vitally important bipartisan and global aim of achieving net zero by 2050. We all have the Earth in common.

Amy Hiller, Kew, Vic

It defies belief that the NSW government and Labor opposition think the lights will stay on without coal-fired power (“Pressure on to extend life of coal power site”, 24/3). The Liddell coal-fired power station will shut down next month, taking with it 10 per cent of NSW’s electricity. Next to be blown up in August 2025 is Eraring, Australia’s largest coal-fired generator and supplier of a whopping 25 per cent of NSW’s power. Premier Dominic Perrottet and Labor leader Chris Minns have this cockeyed idea that the nation’s biggest economy can run on weak, intermittent renewables and big batteries. Yet no nation has been able to make the renewables-plus-storage model work. Denial of this reality isn’t confined to NSW. Every state and territory leader, along with Anthony Albanese, has chosen to abdicate their duty of care to the Australian people by pursuing a transition to renewables. It is worth noting that Energy Minister Matt Kean, the prime mover behind NSW’s rush to renewables, is in danger of losing his seat on Saturday. Maybe voters are realising that if they are to keep their lights on, sticking with the strength of coal-fired power is the only way to go.

Dale Ellis, Innisfail, Qld

Water whirl

A sure sign the inevitable outcome of unsustainable personal and national debt is beginning to take its toll is our changing preference of water. Australia has the dubious honour of being the highest per-capita consumer of expensive bottled water. With the Utopian mirage fading, it’s amazing how many of its inhabitants are drinking something that had been below their status for years – safe clean water from their taps, and what’s more, it’s almost free!

Daryl Binning, Bull Creek, WA

Early memories

Although I applaud the new mothers and babies care centre at The Mater (“Place of healing”, 23/3), this is not the first care centre of this kind in Brisbane. In the early 1960s, as a bride with a baby suffering from colic, and with no relatives and a husband settling into a new job, I was out of my mind as to how to care 24 hours for an unhappy baby. A lady doctor recommended me to the Maternal and Child Welfare Home in Clayfield. Here my baby was taken care of and I was whisked into a four-poster bed with mossie net to sleep for the first time in weeks. Here the ladies helped me with feeding and general care, and got me on the right track. As a new ten-pound Pom, I have never forgotten the care.

Diane Freer, Bardon, Qld