Andrew Bragg came out all hot and heavy the other day, threatening to quit the frontbench if the Liberal Party gave in to popular demands, championed by the Nationals, to drop the Paris Agreement and stop harping on about Net Zero goals.

It must have come as a bit of a shock when the overwhelming response was a shoulder-shrug and mumbles of ‘don’t let the door hit you on the way out’.

Getting rid of Moderates from positions of power within the Liberal Party is seen as a perk of the Net Zero debate, not a problem.

Threatening to resign a frontbench position is only an issue for Sussan Ley, not the conservative base.

Australians living close to the poverty line don’t particularly care about the careers of politicians or the shuffling of chairs inside Shadow Cabinet. They want their energy bills to go in the other direction and for the government to stop approving the ruin of the natural world for the progress of industrial ‘renewables’ projects.

The idea that the Paris Agreement was ever loved by conservatives is laughable.

Sure, Big Business and the finance sector knew from the start that it could be exploited for its massive taxpayer-funded grants and schemes. They also knew that carbon accounting could be used to suffocate smaller business competitors who lacked the infrastructure to comply with green paperwork. A lot of rich people grew even richer while the bulldozers approached regional areas.

But the heart and soul of Blue Ribbon voters? No.

Ordinary people never had any reason, beyond manufactured fear over a wishy-washy apocalypse, to support Net Zero. With the ideological footing of the climate narrative falling to pieces, the public want their money back and Net Zero gone.

Andrew Bragg said on Insiders, ‘Net Zero, if done properly, could reduce power prices and will reduce power prices over time.’

Many would argue that this claim is only true if nuclear is built and renewables are scrapped. With so much money wasted on Net Zero already, every option is now a net cost, rather than benefit. Thank you, government, for the reliable mismanagement of the energy agenda.

It is inconceivable that renewable energy, with a 15-20 year lifespan and sprawling support infrastructure, could ever reduce power prices. It simply does not function for long enough after its expensive installation before the costs of maintenance and repowering cripple it again. Go look for the total cost over a century. Engineering madness. Renewables never should have been allowed to infest our grid. Our grandchildren are going to be paying for this error while the beneficiaries lounge around on their yachts, sailing between climate conferences.

The only thing that has been significantly reduced since the signing of the Paris Agreement has been the productivity of the Australian economy.

As for those who say Australia would be abandoning the international community, give us a break.

China, India, South-East Asia, most of Africa’s nations, and huge areas of South America are catastrophic polluters who seem to get away with trashing the oceans and atmosphere because they pander to the UN with their left-wing governments. The Paris Agreement has not stopped them from butchering the environment. Meanwhile, Australia is one of the cleanest nations on Earth and we don’t need a piece of paper to tell us that.

I wonder how much of the public service and bureaucracy belongs to the Climate Change and Net Zero payroll?

If we were to say, ‘No more!’ Imagine how much money we would save…

It is an open secret that Australia does not need the United Nations or any climate authorities to tell us how to run an energy grid or manage the environment. Voters know it, and they are starting to see every knee-scraping concession to these international bodies as an insult to Australia.

We are on the cusp of spending between $1-1.5 billion hosting a UN COP conference. Why? So that Chris Bowen can sit around, fingers in his ears, while the rest of the world transitions to nuclear energy? We don’t need to spend public money to see Ministers ignore energy reality. That can be done for free by tuning into Parliament.

I would love to tell you how much Climate Change has cost Australia, but no one knows. The whole doomsday industry has been woven into the nation’s finances in such a way that our money is leaking through a billion holes. Mind you, if that money were to all of a sudden stop, we might hear a few guilty parties speak up.

The whole point of this ideological schism facing the Liberal Party is to sort out, once and for all, if the Liberals are a conservative movement interested in saving the country, or if they want the status quo to continue with a few linguistic tweaks.

Even the Nationals, who are trying to shed the worst aspects of Net Zero, only managed a half-hearted effort under David Littleproud as they remain committed in concept. Yes, they dumped Net Zero targets (well done), but they paid lip service to the idea. Their Powering Australia First plan still includes Lowering Emissions. Without the Pain. and lists ‘a fair target, not a fantasy’ in which they say they are ‘setting goals that match what other countries are doing, no more, no less’. They also want to see the return of the Emissions Reductions Fund.

This is not actually what people are asking for.

‘Solar panels on rooftops, combined with grid-sized community batteries, can help keep the power grid stable, stop power networks from getting too busy, and make electricity cheaper when lots of people need it.’

Who wrote that line, I wonder?

Most conservatives are so desperate to get rid of the Moderates that they will give the Nationals a pass on their half-way house policy, but they better be careful because One Nation is taking no prisoners on Net Zero and they are coming for the conservative base in regional and city areas.

In any case, Senator Andrew Bragg is going to get his chance to quit in spectacular fashion.

We wish him well with his 15 minutes of fame.

The man who said in September of 2021, ‘Net Zero is a key economic and environment position which we should accelerate. We must not leave anyone behind…’ faces the political wrath of the Australian voters who were left behind.

As for Leader, Sussan Ley, she’s running out of members to put on the frontbench. Both protesting groups will all be sitting together on the backbench, united by their frustration.

‘If we left [the Paris Agreement] we’d be with Azerbaijan, Iran, Syria, you know, and a few other baddies…’ added Senator Bragg.

It is pretty easy to group countries together based on what they do or don’t sign, but his choice of countries is a bit bizarre. Azerbaijan held the presidency for COP29 and only yesterday handed this position over to Brazil. Does that not make it one of the climate good guys? Senator Bragg could not have picked a worse example.

He also said, ‘I don’t imagine that we would ever leave [the Paris Agreement]. We’re a party of government, right? We’re not a fringe party. I would have thought that the most reasonable position here would be to stay in Paris, maintain that commitment to do a better job on Net Zero than Labor. But you can’t have a fatwa on two words, this is the international standard. I mean, trying to pretend that you’re not going to say two words is absolutely ridiculous.’

Go on. Scamper off to the backbench.

Those minor fringe parties are coming for you.