Another great article. I’d add that these agencies are unaccountable to anyone, and lack any governance and oversight. Time to reform the lot - and by that I really mean getting rid of them,
They are meant to be accountable to the minister. However with the calibre of many (most? all?) ministers and shadows the APS has nothing to fear in its Sir Humphey role. The paucity of policy is aggravated mightily by ministerial incompetence. I wish for a more positive perspective but can only rely on evidence. Recently listened to Tim Ayres, apparently Minister for Industry, he is prime evidence of the incompetence.
Until the Public Serpents are reigned in and controlled by those paying their bloated wages - we the people - they will continue to serve themselves and the highest paying masters of the Globalist blob.
"This is institutional betrayal."
Spot on. Also known as malfeasance in office. Or treason.
And if the majority do not fightback this will not change. If it is not soon it may be too late to recover and the lucky country will be a distant memory if it is not removed from history altogether.
Made massive sense to me. Keep this up Chris. I would applaud if there was a way to summarise this and get it into the hands of every Aus who cares about our nation. We need common sense leadership to start getting the public service to realise they work for us ... and redirect our focus to create policies to make abundant cheap energy available to all again. Andrew Hastie comes to mind! Are you up for it mate?
The State ‘only’ purses these grandiose projects because they are using other people’s money and having run out of that … they put us in debt over our heads. The only things worth doing are the things you would pay for… with your own money. Everything else is waste and fraud.
Well summarized indeed, though in response to "All this for what?" overlooks the most obvious answer "the solving of a non-problem".
CO2 is neither a pollutant, nor is it the primary driver of so claimed global warming.
On the contrary, CO2 is a minuscule, invisible, odourless, tasteless atmospheric trace gas necessary for life on planet Earth. Without it we'd be dead.
This entire fiasco is based upon demonization of CO2.
In the absence of empirical evidence proving the case against it (there isn't any), there's no sound basis upon which to pursue this madness that's based upon pseudoscience, NOT evidence based in accord with the tried & true principles of The Scientific Method.
The latter conveniently ignored by proponents of the Climate Catastrophe, embraced by Grifters & Carpetbaggers alike, gorging themselves upon the huge subsidies doled out by Govt in favour of the Unreliables, albeit carefully hidden from public view by commercial-in-confidence agreements, reportedly to the tune of $Bs.
Warming, since the Little Ice Age ended some 300 years ago, has been unequivocally beneficial and we are still a degree or two short of the Roman Warm Period. That was the best time for living things in recorded history.
Fear of warming (and plant food) is driving the greatest misallocation of resources ever, equating to trillions of dollars worldwide.
Would you spend a single dollar to get the results of this great experiment?
Electricity costs have doubled or tripled. The supply is less secure, with blackouts looming in Germany, Britain, and Australia. The current is less stable in voltage and frequency, which are vital for modern manufacturing machinery.
We know that wind and solar won’t work, thanks to the combined effect of wind droughts and the lack of feasible and affordable grid-scale storage. Break the bank and build storage if you must, but McBatney’s Law dictates that you will never charge it with intermitent wind and solar.
Thank you Chris, this is perhaps the most masterful expose’ that you have published to-date on this topic. The question of Australia’s future resilience is seldom mentioned by most commentators, but you have nearly hit the nail on the head.
Underpinning resilience must be a reserve of expert operators and engineers (No Charlatans, Please). Most people would not be aware of the comprehensive training (both theory and practice), which has given past assurance of electricity system performance and resilience.
In the wake of the vociferous, false and persistent claims regarding the need to remove all fossil fuel power generation, guess what has happened to more than a century of proven training and personnel development programmes (including full-scope replica power plant simulator training and assessment activities).
Where are the expert trainers and educators, and where are the simulators and other training resources and, most importantly, where is the flowing stream of trainees at each stage of the essential programme? Sorry, there is no such thing anymore.
Let’s also not forget that, in order to prepare Australia for a transition to an emissions-free nuclear energy future, we first need to educate the present and future public. Indoctrination and vacant slogans are never going to be the answer to our energy-supported future.
Mike Knowles, you have hit one big nail in the head, but what’s the strategy?
Stuart Frost, simplification is but an impossible dream. With this topic, simplification merely produces many more demands for more comprehensive explanations of carefully simplified statements. Perhaps you could give it a try?
The problem with Australia is that it figures things out two to three years after the rest of the world, whether that be the unforeseen impacts of COVID lockdowns (inflation, delayed childhood development, substance abuse, domestic violence and undiagnosed critical illness) or the energy transition (more inflation, deindustrialisation, budget deficits, national security risks and grid instability). Much like lockdowns, Net Zero has already ended elsewhere and is not coming back due to the energy demand of AI. Let’s hope this time there is some accountability.
Thanks for your unerring committment to journalistic integrity and cold hard reality Chris.
The threat the Canberra Class poses to the Commonwealth of Australia and its many and varied constituents can not be understated. The Australian public service has spent the past three decades engineering the covert destruction of the core principle that underpins our Westminster democratic system. The separation of power.
The blurring of lines between the executive and the legislature has been gathering pace for years. As it has done so, the bureacrats have leveraged that new influence and power in the legislature to encircle the juidiciary. Bringing together the means to circumvent that foundation stone of our successful democracy. Whether they have already captured the holy trinity of power and are uncontestable is beyond my knowledge. However, a quick scan of many recent socio-political debates and legislation introduced, such as the that voted into law yesterday, indicate if the hijack is not yet complete, it is imminent.
Australians, like the rest of western civilisation, decided it was living in peace after we declared the end of the cold war. What we failed to notice was that the cold war had merely been supplanted with a silent one.
Yes, great article. But nearly all of you blame AEMO and the “Canberra bureaucrats” for this madness, when they are responding to the politicians, who buy the climate disaster and renewables as saviours fantasies because they think they have to to get re-elected. Someone has to tell the people that the emperor has no clothes. Most of the public in Australia DO buy the nonsense they’ve been fed because they don’t know any better, but it’s interesting that there’s big pushback when they are asked to pay for all the changes. So the politicians lie: renewables are heavily and hiddenly subsidised, taxes are imposed on least-favoured industries and there is a cover-up of the drag on economic productivity by these market distortions. What to do? Tell the truth! Trust the people to understand that what’s being done in their name is actually a road to perdition. Is there a politician brave enough and articulate enough to explain what’s happening and to beat off all the parasites who profit from this climate of fear and from the (wrong) policies. Simply put, say “Yes, climate change is real and yes, humans are impacting it, but the current responses are all wrong and will ruin us unless we change course.” Time to get on with it.
My condemnation of the dictatorial power and corruption of the public service goes way beyond the issue of climate change. Other than that clarification, I'm unsure what the point is of your comment?
Are you suggesting that my attribution of fault is misplaced? That responsibility firmly lies with elected officials that become head of departments and inherit a well entrenched bureacracy of thousands and who disseminate the information it chooses to a leader that will only be there for three to six years at the most?
What does just "getting on with it" actually mean? If blame is misplaced, please tell us how the present course delivers better outcomes?
The institutional failure here is that AEMO admits transmission costs doubled, coal exits got pushedback a decade, and then everyone else just keeps building policy on the old assumptions anyway. When bureaurcrats treat grid planning as ideology enforcement instead of reliability engineering, ordinary people end up choosing between heating and eating. Australia's going the UK route where energy poverty became a political third rail only after thousands of pensioners froze. By then the damage is baked in.
Another great article. I’d add that these agencies are unaccountable to anyone, and lack any governance and oversight. Time to reform the lot - and by that I really mean getting rid of them,
They are meant to be accountable to the minister. However with the calibre of many (most? all?) ministers and shadows the APS has nothing to fear in its Sir Humphey role. The paucity of policy is aggravated mightily by ministerial incompetence. I wish for a more positive perspective but can only rely on evidence. Recently listened to Tim Ayres, apparently Minister for Industry, he is prime evidence of the incompetence.
Until the Public Serpents are reigned in and controlled by those paying their bloated wages - we the people - they will continue to serve themselves and the highest paying masters of the Globalist blob.
"This is institutional betrayal."
Spot on. Also known as malfeasance in office. Or treason.
And if the majority do not fightback this will not change. If it is not soon it may be too late to recover and the lucky country will be a distant memory if it is not removed from history altogether.
Made massive sense to me. Keep this up Chris. I would applaud if there was a way to summarise this and get it into the hands of every Aus who cares about our nation. We need common sense leadership to start getting the public service to realise they work for us ... and redirect our focus to create policies to make abundant cheap energy available to all again. Andrew Hastie comes to mind! Are you up for it mate?
excellent analysis of 2025 developments
The State ‘only’ purses these grandiose projects because they are using other people’s money and having run out of that … they put us in debt over our heads. The only things worth doing are the things you would pay for… with your own money. Everything else is waste and fraud.
Great article!
Terrific article. So perfectly encapsulates the feckless governance these Canberra clowns practise.
Well summarized indeed, though in response to "All this for what?" overlooks the most obvious answer "the solving of a non-problem".
CO2 is neither a pollutant, nor is it the primary driver of so claimed global warming.
On the contrary, CO2 is a minuscule, invisible, odourless, tasteless atmospheric trace gas necessary for life on planet Earth. Without it we'd be dead.
This entire fiasco is based upon demonization of CO2.
In the absence of empirical evidence proving the case against it (there isn't any), there's no sound basis upon which to pursue this madness that's based upon pseudoscience, NOT evidence based in accord with the tried & true principles of The Scientific Method.
The latter conveniently ignored by proponents of the Climate Catastrophe, embraced by Grifters & Carpetbaggers alike, gorging themselves upon the huge subsidies doled out by Govt in favour of the Unreliables, albeit carefully hidden from public view by commercial-in-confidence agreements, reportedly to the tune of $Bs.
We're being glued & screwed by experts.
We have got a lot of wind and solar installed, with a great deal more to come, but a lot of capacity ain't real capacity at all.
Like some oils ain't oils as the old saying goes.
https://youtu.be/c7TUiMCeils 40 seconds.
In case you are worried about warming and CO2 emissions, just read a good book or two and relax!
https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=Rafe+Champion&i=stripbooks&crid=GZ66NWUYZ193&sprefix=rafe+champion%2Cstripbooks%2C262&ref=nb_sb_noss
Warming, since the Little Ice Age ended some 300 years ago, has been unequivocally beneficial and we are still a degree or two short of the Roman Warm Period. That was the best time for living things in recorded history.
Fear of warming (and plant food) is driving the greatest misallocation of resources ever, equating to trillions of dollars worldwide.
Would you spend a single dollar to get the results of this great experiment?
Electricity costs have doubled or tripled. The supply is less secure, with blackouts looming in Germany, Britain, and Australia. The current is less stable in voltage and frequency, which are vital for modern manufacturing machinery.
And the environmental carnage!
FACE IT, THE WAR ON CO2 HAS BEEN LOST!
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/losing-the-war-on-co2
Simplify the grid and get cheap and reliable power again.
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/its-time-to-simplify-the-grid
We know that wind and solar won’t work, thanks to the combined effect of wind droughts and the lack of feasible and affordable grid-scale storage. Break the bank and build storage if you must, but McBatney’s Law dictates that you will never charge it with intermitent wind and solar.
Thank you Chris, this is perhaps the most masterful expose’ that you have published to-date on this topic. The question of Australia’s future resilience is seldom mentioned by most commentators, but you have nearly hit the nail on the head.
Underpinning resilience must be a reserve of expert operators and engineers (No Charlatans, Please). Most people would not be aware of the comprehensive training (both theory and practice), which has given past assurance of electricity system performance and resilience.
In the wake of the vociferous, false and persistent claims regarding the need to remove all fossil fuel power generation, guess what has happened to more than a century of proven training and personnel development programmes (including full-scope replica power plant simulator training and assessment activities).
Where are the expert trainers and educators, and where are the simulators and other training resources and, most importantly, where is the flowing stream of trainees at each stage of the essential programme? Sorry, there is no such thing anymore.
Let’s also not forget that, in order to prepare Australia for a transition to an emissions-free nuclear energy future, we first need to educate the present and future public. Indoctrination and vacant slogans are never going to be the answer to our energy-supported future.
Mike Knowles, you have hit one big nail in the head, but what’s the strategy?
Stuart Frost, simplification is but an impossible dream. With this topic, simplification merely produces many more demands for more comprehensive explanations of carefully simplified statements. Perhaps you could give it a try?
Yes, all insane.
Chris, totally agree and for your interest: https://substack.com/@davidarchibald/p-178757183
The problem with Australia is that it figures things out two to three years after the rest of the world, whether that be the unforeseen impacts of COVID lockdowns (inflation, delayed childhood development, substance abuse, domestic violence and undiagnosed critical illness) or the energy transition (more inflation, deindustrialisation, budget deficits, national security risks and grid instability). Much like lockdowns, Net Zero has already ended elsewhere and is not coming back due to the energy demand of AI. Let’s hope this time there is some accountability.
Just more fossil foolery!
Thanks for your unerring committment to journalistic integrity and cold hard reality Chris.
The threat the Canberra Class poses to the Commonwealth of Australia and its many and varied constituents can not be understated. The Australian public service has spent the past three decades engineering the covert destruction of the core principle that underpins our Westminster democratic system. The separation of power.
The blurring of lines between the executive and the legislature has been gathering pace for years. As it has done so, the bureacrats have leveraged that new influence and power in the legislature to encircle the juidiciary. Bringing together the means to circumvent that foundation stone of our successful democracy. Whether they have already captured the holy trinity of power and are uncontestable is beyond my knowledge. However, a quick scan of many recent socio-political debates and legislation introduced, such as the that voted into law yesterday, indicate if the hijack is not yet complete, it is imminent.
Australians, like the rest of western civilisation, decided it was living in peace after we declared the end of the cold war. What we failed to notice was that the cold war had merely been supplanted with a silent one.
Yes, great article. But nearly all of you blame AEMO and the “Canberra bureaucrats” for this madness, when they are responding to the politicians, who buy the climate disaster and renewables as saviours fantasies because they think they have to to get re-elected. Someone has to tell the people that the emperor has no clothes. Most of the public in Australia DO buy the nonsense they’ve been fed because they don’t know any better, but it’s interesting that there’s big pushback when they are asked to pay for all the changes. So the politicians lie: renewables are heavily and hiddenly subsidised, taxes are imposed on least-favoured industries and there is a cover-up of the drag on economic productivity by these market distortions. What to do? Tell the truth! Trust the people to understand that what’s being done in their name is actually a road to perdition. Is there a politician brave enough and articulate enough to explain what’s happening and to beat off all the parasites who profit from this climate of fear and from the (wrong) policies. Simply put, say “Yes, climate change is real and yes, humans are impacting it, but the current responses are all wrong and will ruin us unless we change course.” Time to get on with it.
My condemnation of the dictatorial power and corruption of the public service goes way beyond the issue of climate change. Other than that clarification, I'm unsure what the point is of your comment?
Are you suggesting that my attribution of fault is misplaced? That responsibility firmly lies with elected officials that become head of departments and inherit a well entrenched bureacracy of thousands and who disseminate the information it chooses to a leader that will only be there for three to six years at the most?
What does just "getting on with it" actually mean? If blame is misplaced, please tell us how the present course delivers better outcomes?
The institutional failure here is that AEMO admits transmission costs doubled, coal exits got pushedback a decade, and then everyone else just keeps building policy on the old assumptions anyway. When bureaurcrats treat grid planning as ideology enforcement instead of reliability engineering, ordinary people end up choosing between heating and eating. Australia's going the UK route where energy poverty became a political third rail only after thousands of pensioners froze. By then the damage is baked in.