Australia’s so-called transition to renewables has been one long deception built on lies, falsehoods, hoaxes and scams. For those of us – including a majority of our readers – who do not accept the basic premise of the climate change cult, this comes as no surprise. If the building blocks of your ideology are a self-evident falsehood, it doesn’t matter how much you pour into building your ideological structure, it is never going to be able to survive the winds of reality. Just ask the engineers of the Berlin Wall.

But for those who, for whatever reason, have lapped up the doomsday alarmism, the day of reckoning and climate change disillusionment must surely be fast approaching. Will 2026 mark the collapse of the climate change hoax? We shall see.

With the US having abandoned net zero and quit the Paris climate accord, and most major industrialised nations either disregarding climate change commitments or lying about their adherence to them, along with an increasing number of right-wing political parties pledging to ditch net zero, the momentum is clearly only going in one direction. Away from Paris. Away from renewables. Away from subsidies. Away from insanity.

The recent Cop 30 in Brazil was a classic example of the crumbling climate edifice. In a filthy, impoverished Amazonian town, the latest ‘save the planet’ lectures were delivered even as trees were bulldozed so the delegates could travel in air-conditioned comfort to their gabfest. Two cruise ships had to be specially hired so the delegates who were displeased with their local accommodation could at least enjoy the creature comforts they are used to. Australia sent nearly 500 delegates, an obscene amount, and all for nothing – given securing the next Cop for Adelaide was the goal.

History will look back on this period of Labor government with a mixture of disbelief and anger. Disbelief that an entire economic philosophy of deindustrialisation could be built on the flimsy protestations of a Swedish truant and Green eco-loons. And anger at what was thrown away.

Every week, it seems, a new story comes to light exposing the stupidity of the regressive and self-destructive enterprise this nation has embarked on. Large users of electricity, such as smelters, are forced to shut up shop, promises of ‘green hydrogen hubs’ turn out to be a hoax (after the subsidies and grants have been handed over, natch) and our most pristine and fertile agricultural land is gobbled up by solar factories because it is cheaper to build them on soft soil than hard. Transmission towers scar the countryside, windmills dot the horizon where once was virgin bush. (Mercifully), one after another wind factory projects is abandoned because the investors shy away.

Then came the story over the past couple of weeks that those hideous wind turbines which we are supposed to tolerate because they are providing us with ‘cheap, sustainable energy’ are in fact providing anyone unlucky enough to be downwind of them with ‘cheap, sustainable asbestos fibres’ instead.

There are academic scandals aplenty, with studies being disproved or revoked, and in general the alarmism is failing to bite as once it did. Which is hardly surprising. How often can you cry, ‘Wolf!’, or to be more precise, how often can you cry, ‘The islands are sinking!’, ‘The ice caps are melting!’ or ‘The snow is disappearing!’ before people notice that, er, they aren’t and it isn’t.

Still, Malcolm Turnbull reinserted himself into the climate news in the dying days of the annual news cycle, just in time for the Silly Season. Rumours are that the Ghost of Wentworth, Mr Harbourside Ghoul himself, may be scheming to form some kind of ‘centre-right’ party (ie. woke/leftist/progressive) out of some combination of Liberal party bedwetters and the Teals. Good. Please do it, Malcolm, and take as many of the Bedwetting/Black Hand/‘Moderates’ crowd with you as you can muster. ‘Turnbull’s Teals’ certainly has a ring to it. This would free up the Coalition to focus on providing a strong, conservative opposition which with the amazing talent available to it would be unstoppable. In the meantime, the Coalition needs to stop bagging One Nation. Voters who have deserted the Coalition for One Nation won’t be magically wooed back by Sussan Ley and Dave Sharma attacking Pauline Hanson. There may be a point at which the Coalition needs to join forces with One Nation to destroy the horror show that is the Albanese government.

In the meantime, we wish all our loyal readers and our wonderful contributors a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Next year could well be one of the most significant in a decade, as it will either make or break the Liberal party, and by definition, make or break the Coalition in its current format. We desperately need a strong, powerful and effective conservative opposition to bring common-sense government back to these shores.

If you’re stuck for a last-minute pressie for that strong-minded young niece or nephew, why not give them a year’s subscription to this magazine? At least you know the festive season will have a bit of sparkle to it! – Rowan Dean