Climate Change Minister Chris ‘Bonehead’ Bowen says the Nationals have “betrayed” regional Australia by rejecting so-called Net Zero policy.
But as Bowen spouts his delusional excuses, farmers are now threatening to block wind and solar energy companies from grabbing large slices of their land for the vast and growing network of power lines.
This is the economic stupidity required to connect the increasing number of “renewable energy” sites needed to maintain some semblance of a power supply system the Bowen and company think will replace coal-fired energy.
“We know regional Australia has the most to lose from the impacts of climate change … and regional Australia has the most to gain from taking action,” the chief climate clown told national media.
“Renewables are not only keeping the lights on as aging coal plants retire, but they’re creating jobs and new revenue right across regional Australian communities,” the boneheaded buffoon said.
“Farmers are earning a significant income stream from hosting renewable energy projects alongside existing farming activities.”
But farmers in Victoria are now risking arrest by blocking energy companies using state legislation to grab land for power transmission lines that cut across stockyards, cropping paddocks, storage sheds and even landing strips for aircraft.
The farmers say they will continue to refuse access to transmission line teams, despite legislation passing that could see them arrested for doing so.
In Victoria’s rigged Upper House, the delusional Greens, Legalise Cannabis and Animal Justice MPs helped Labor defeat the LNP Opposition’s attempt to block legislation that gives the Victorian government powers to force access to farmland for the construction of new transmission lines.
In NSW the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), will require a 3km-wide corridor for 70 metre high transmission lines in.
A new 3km-wide corridor has shifted significantly from the original route and will cross land through Walcha area properties, and away from other towns like Tamworth, where protests against the original proposal took place.
2GB Sydney radio host Ben Fordham has reported outraged landowners calling his radio show “in tears” over the sudden development.
“And they’re broken and they’re bloody angry because without any proper consultation, they’ve been told they will host massive transmission lines on their properties,” Fordham said.
Meanwhile the Liberals have been put on the spot by the Nationals rejection of Net Zero targets.
The NSW Liberal Party president Jason Falinski, has told the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas that the Nationals’ decision was “lazy” and “all Australians, including a majority of those in seats held by the National Party, accept human activity is causing climate change”.
Apparently Falinski thinks that grassroots National Party members, who overwhelmingly voted against net zero at their branch meetings, don’t represent the majority of people in their electorates.
“The Labor Party is failing; it is right to point this out, but it is not right to walk away from the challenge of addressing the issue,” the limp-wristed Liberal pointed out.
The Nationals’ decision was based on a review by The Page Research Centre, led by Nationals senators Matt Canavan and Ross Cadell, which concluded “a net zero commitment no longer serves the interests of the Australian people”.
“Since Australia committed to its net zero target, electricity and gas prices have increased by around 40 per cent,” the report notes. “Lower-income households already spend nearly four times the share of their income on energy compared to higher-income households, making affordability a question not only of economics but of equity.”
The Page Research Centre said the agriculture sector and rural areas had borne the burden of emissions reduction, and that effort should be better shared.
The Nationals signed up to a net zero by 2050 commitment under former leader Barnaby Joyce, and then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Joyce has since said it was a mistake and he has campaigned vigorously against the renewables rollout in NSW.