Dear Peter Dutton,

CC Ted O’Brien

I’ve been badgering and ridiculing Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen in this publication (in both its physical and digital platforms) while writing about his portfolio’s climate change fantasies since October 2016. It is weighing on my conscience – only because the Liberal Party you lead has continued the Net Zero policy of your predecessor, Scott Morrison. You deserve my attention (and opprobrium), too.

While your performance on the subject avoids the pantomime of Bowen’s zealotry, all Net Zero policies are based on nothing more than destructive propaganda. To recall US columnist and author the late Charles Krauthammer’s observation that the political right thinks the left is stupid and the left thinks the right is evil. You and your party are neither stupid nor evil; so why?

Scott Morrison is largely to blame for thrusting the Coalition into the net of climate derangement syndrome. But you, as the new leader, should have immediately suspended that policy, ‘while under investigation’.

Political wisdom may have scared you off, but political wisdom is like lady luck. She may not stick around when you need her. A sure bet would be the facts. In this case, the facts drown out the propaganda, if only you’ll listen.

What I propose is that you harness the great research that your shadow minister, Ted O’Brien, has compiled on the subject, and fuse it to the nuclear power issue.

This is how it might be framed in the statement announcing the policy change:

The Liberal Party has reviewed the special, deeply researched report on climate change related matters by Shadow Minister Ted O’Brien. The report demonstrates without doubt that policies intended to reduce fossil fuel emissions have been developed on alarmist claims repeated over many years. 

The report highlights the absence of any scientific evidence to support the claims that CO2 warms the planet. It never has.

Indeed, the report cites contrary evidence from acclaimed scientists who rely on empirical data and historical evidence. In fact, atmospheric CO2 increases after periods of natural warming.

Among other things, the report points to recent claims by the Prime Minister and other Cabinet members that extreme weather events we are seeing are caused by climate change. This fallacy was debunked by the IPCC itself over a decade ago in November 2011 in its special draft report on extreme weather events. It reported that, for the next 20-30 years, man-made warming effects on climate extremes will be swamped by natural climate variability, adding that the man-made warming may even be beneficial by reducing the number of extreme events. This has been ignored, and alarmist claims continue with every extreme weather event.

Shadow Minister O’Brien’s report simultaneously details the benefits and feasibility of nuclear power generation, which we have supported for some time.

Consequently, the combination of two powerful drivers to change policy for the benefit of Australia, the Liberal Party room has agreed to abandon Net Zero as a policy objective and embrace nuclear energy as a priority in energy production.

In the short term, mining and burning fossil fuels will be considered not as a dangerous endeavour but as necessary to production and the maintenance of Australia’s standard of living. The transition to nuclear energy will be planned through consultation with industry experts and consultants, drawing on international experience. It will be left to the marketplace to determine whether nuclear energy is commercially feasible, and we in government will provide the legislative framework. 

Among the great side-benefits of embracing nuclear energy would be the gradual silencing of anti-fossil fuel fulminations. It has got insufferably boring.

But the biggest benefit is most likely to be the election of the Coalition and putting a halt to the destructive effects (and sky-high prices) of rejecting coal and gas.

Your humble reporter,

Andrew L. Urban is the author of Climate Alarm Reality Check (Wilkinson).

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