News & Media

Townsville speech

There is increasing evidence the US has reached the point of peak renewables, as the pool of private investors shrinks and winning community approval becomes harder. Research by the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory showed roughly one-third of utility-scale wind and solar applications submitted over the past five years were cancelled, while about half of wind and solar projects experienced significant delays.

Australia’s east coast energy market is facing a perfect storm of higher global LNG prices, volatile and intermittent renewables penetration, coal plant outages and extreme weather, increasing fears of gas shortages, spiking power bills and blackouts.

Australia’s richest woman has unveiled a sensational plan to use resources revenue to fund military upgrades including an “Israeli” missile deflection dome and compulsory military training.

Despite much hype, the much-vaunted green energy transition away from fossil fuels isn’t happening. Achieving a meaningful shift with current policies turns out to be unaffordably costly. We need to drastically change policy direction.

Outback mayor Trevor Pickering has hit the nail on the head – it’s time for politicians in Canberra and Brisbane to pay more than just lip service to the regions.

Mrs Rinehart said the elimination of the direct costs of payroll tax, licence fees and stamp duties is what would “actually help the farmer and those in the bush”.

We are seeing massive rates of business failure at the moment, the highest on record for some time, and our agricultural and mining industries are struggling with ever-increasing government-imposed burdens of tape and tax.

Agriculture and mining magnate Gina Rinehart says Australia risks killing “the geese laying the golden egg” as farmers struggle under the burdens of government red tape and tax.

We need a mindset change, and we need this quickly.