Make coal great again or China gets your data, says Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson has warned Australian data centres will collapse without coal power, as the Coalition faces internal pressure over its dramatic net-zero backflip.
Pauline Hanson has warned that Australian data centres will “go bust” without coal-fired power and raised the threat of China using fossil fuels to dominate global data storage, as the One Nation leader attacked the Coalition for staying in the Paris Agreement and backing renewables.
As Sussan Ley on Friday launched a 10-day national blitz to sell the Coalition’s anti-net-zero energy and climate policy, the Opposition Leader was under pressure to stop a flood of members and donors abandoning the Liberal Party to its right and left flanks.
The campaign-style tour promoting the new position was backed by senior conservative Angus Taylor, who told The Australian that “Labor’s approach damages our standard of living and weakens our country … that is not the Liberal way”.
Senior moderate Liberals who threatened to quit the frontbench if net zero was junked on Friday indicated no immediate moves to step down, while frontbencher Tim Wilson is understood to be weighing up his options but not intending to rush any decision.
Ahead of Liberal and Nationals MPs endorsing the policy at a joint Coalition partyroom meeting on Sunday, The Australian can reveal One Nation and Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 are ramping up membership and fundraising drives.
After last month doubling its membership base since the May 3 election, One Nation has added a further 4000 members in recent weeks. Core support for the right-wing party rose to a record 15 per cent in the latest Newspoll, as the Coalition primary vote plunged to a historic low of 24 per cent.
With moderate Liberals raising concerns about a net-zero backlash in metropolitan seats, Climate 200 on Thursday night raised $342,120 in just over 24 hours. The money will be allocated to teal independent candidates running in Coalition battleground seats.
Senator Hanson, who will release One Nation’s energy policy when MPs return to Canberra for the final parliamentary sitting week of the year, briefed The Australian on a central plank of her energy policy, which focuses on “guaranteeing cheaper, more reliable electricity for key industries like data storage centres”.
The One Nation leader, who said Australians’ data security was “at risk from net zero”, last week met with right-wing Argentinian President Javier Milei, senior US Republicans and members of Donald Trump’s inner-circle, including son Eric and daughter-in-law Lara, at the President’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Senator Hanson, who attended a CPAC event alongside Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, caught up with her friend and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage – whose party is leading Labour and the Tories in British polling – and Mr Trump’s nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman.
With global investment in data storage centres projected to peak at $8 trillion, Senator Hanson warned that Australia’s “2.6 per cent share” of the world’s data storage “would collapse without cheaper and more reliable coal-fired power”.
Given the intensive energy and water demands of data centres, the Albanese government’s plan to power them and artificial intelligence advancements with renewables has come under fire.
Senator Hanson said Australia “must get out of the Paris Agreement, extend the life of our existing coal-fired power stations, invest in nuclear power and start building new coal-fired power stations to provide cheaper and more reliable electricity for households, businesses and industries”.
“Communist China will end up holding the majority of the world’s data because of its cheap electricity fuelled in part by Australian coal,” she said. “This frightens the hell out of me, and it should set off alarm bells in the minds of every Australian.”
The Queensland senator said the government would have no jurisdiction if sensitive personal, corporate, biometrics, medical, location and intellectual property data “is stored overseas”.
“At a recent function in Sydney, it was made quite clear to me by a number of venture capitalists the push for renewables across Western economies was driving power prices higher and Western data centres could not compete with communist China’s due to China’s cheaper electricity,” she said. “My prediction is that Australia – with the highest electricity prices in the world outside Europe – will see its data centres go bust, leaving no choice for Australian businesses other than to store our sensitive data offshore.”
Amid recriminations in Liberal ranks, moderate MPs unhappy with the net-zero decision said they won some concessions, including staying committed to Australia’s nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement.
Mr Wilson – who holds the inner-urban Melbourne electorate of Goldstein – will be targeted by Climate 200 in 2028 after teal independent Zoe Daniel lost the seat to the opposition industrial relations and employment spokesman.
Climate 200 co-convenor Kate Hook said that as of Thursday night, “donors … had committed $342,120 in just over 24 hours to support independents around the country by the next election”.
Ms Hook said regional and metropolitan community groups backing teal independents were “fired-up” by the Coalition walking away from net zero.
Mr Taylor, considered the frontrunning conservative candidate to replace Ms Ley if she can’t recover, locked in behind the Opposition Leader.
“Net zero now embodies Labor’s approach to reducing emissions which we must comprehensively reject,” Mr Taylor, who helped devise Scott Morrison’s 2021 net-zero policy, told The Australian.
“It is about more government regulation, sneaky taxes on hardworking Australians and telling us how to live our lives.”
As Malcolm Turnbull accused the Coalition of “trying to compete with Pauline Hanson”, Ms Ley said she would make immigration her next policy priority. Speaking with John Howard at a Menzies Research Centre event on Thursday night, Ms Ley said “the common theme is migration … I have said it needs to be lower”.
Ms Ley, who said Australia must urgently open more gas basins and supply, deflected claims the Liberals had followed the Nationals on net zero.
Anthony Albanese, who is blaming the Coalition and Ukraine war for failing to reduce power bills ahead of energy rebates ending next month, said Ms Ley had capitulated to the Nationals and “chosen to take Australia backwards”.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan said he was “confident that we will have a better, stronger and more beautiful relationship with the Liberals after this”.
“Together we will be determined to give the Australian people a chance to lift their living standards and protect our jobs,” he told The Australian.
The working group established by Ms Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud to finalise a joint party position includes Senator Canavan, Ross Cadell, Susan McDonald, Dan Tehan, Anne Ruston and Jonno Duniam. Some Nationals MPs are understood to be concerned about whether a “technology neutral” energy policy would allow the rollout of wind and solar farms across regional Australia.
New England MP Barnaby Joyce, who is expected to quit the Nationals and run on the One Nation Senate ticket at the 2028 election, said he was “happy with the direction of the body politic” in pushing back against net zero. “I played my part on the private member’s (repeal net zero) bill, but others did as well. I expect to be joined by the whole of the Coalition and look forward to others speaking on the bill,” he said.
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