Federal Labor Party discussion

[Smurf1976]

I think you are spot on, but I also think Bowen and Chalmers are talking themselves into a corner.
They need to take a deep breath and calm down, now Bowen is quoting nuclear facts from 20 years ago when Ziggy did a review, IMO he is just digging a bigger and bigger hole.
He needs to back off on the rhetoric and get some technical advice, not only is the fossil fuel sector getting nervous, it sounds as though the AEMO is also.
In Sept they were talking about giving the AEMO more control over gas, today they are talking about changing the way gas and it's pricing is dealt with. To the layman it must project a image of chaos IMO.

https://www.energy.gov.au/government-priorities/energy-ministers/priorities/gas/proposed-regulatory-amendments-extend-aemos-functions-and-powers-manage-east-coast-gas-supply-adequacy

In short I've followed this from the start. Right from the start. I've still got early planning documents from 1993 when the idea of an electricity market was first being proposed.

The basic problem right now is the whole thing's so far removed from both engineering and economic fundamentals as to be a nightmare. Or more to the point, an accident waiting to happen both technically and economically.

Fundamentally there's no reason that prevents the efficient and economical supply of electricity and gas to consumers in Australian cities and all but the most remote towns. We've got plenty of suitable natural resources, we've got land to build things on, etc.

Trouble is we've got a political class that simply doesn't respect technical knowledge and skill. It's as simple as that. Find any once-great technical institution, from TAFE to manufacturing, from utilities to research, and governments have over the past few decades slowly but surely done their best to destroy it.

If there's a genuine desire from politicians, of whatever persuasion, to fix the mess then quite simply they need to keep the politics out of it. Put competent people in charge and leave them to get on with it, noting that technical things don't always make for great political announcements and photo ops but such is life.

If they don't do that, if they keep meddling, well there's darkness ahead. Literally so.

Next winter could well bring down the government if they're not careful. I don't think they really grasp that reality and what needs to be done to fix the situation. Politicians are simply far too down a rabbit hole of ideology and waffle speech and lack any real understanding of the fundamentals of what needs to happen.

 

[Smurf1976]

Do people in Saudi Arabia or the USA pay world parity prices for their own oil i wonder ?

No and yes in that order.

Bearing in mind that Saudi does however encourage technical efficiency by the public. They're one of the few countries that actively encourages use of the correct octane petrol for example - bearing in mind that "correct" does not necessarily mean "highest". So they do push technical efficiency there.

Same in fuels for power generation. They've intentionally pushed it toward the use of lower value fuels despite the technical challenges of doing so.

Similar with the other ME oil countries. Dubai with its well known pursuit of lighting efficiency being an obvious example - and you can't buy those bulbs anywhere else in the world.

In Australia you can buy a 7W LED to replace a 60W incandescent.

Go to Dubai and you'd buy a 3W LED to do the same job. Theirs lasts two thirds longer too.

So those countries are pursuing technical efficiency basically.