Confronted by a serious journalist, Liam Bartlett, at a press conference this week, Australia’s hapless and hopeless Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen proved yet again why he is the most incompetent minister in the Albanese government – and that’s saying something. It’s a very low bar.

The Channel 7 reporter put this simple and important question to Mr Bowen: ‘Let me get this right. Your renewables transmission policy will not alter one iota, despite what this war has shown us with the failure of your energy policy?’

So before we get to Mr Bowen’s non-answer, let’s break that question down into bite-size pieces. Mr Bartlett wanted to know whether or not the government would press on in full and without compromise with its multi-billion-dollar transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy farms, with all the problems, cost blowouts and land destruction that this policy entails; and that we now have ample evidence after five weeks of instability that this policy does not provide the nation with sufficient energy when fossil fuel imports are interrupted. Or words to that effect.

Mr Bowen could have provided any number of truthful answers, without too much embarrassment, to that question. He could have said that the Australian people are clearly losing their unbounded enthusiasm for net zero at any cost. He could have said that in an increasingly volatile world, the government now appreciates that a slower, more cautious transition to renewables is more advisable. He could have said that the government was encouraging those states with untapped fossil fuel reserves, such as Queensland, to push forward with plans to exploit them. He could have said that, along with many other nations, Australia might have to recalibrate our emissions reduction targets and timings in order to guarantee sufficient energy supplies. He could have said that Canberra had not sufficiently appreciated the reliance our farmers and distributors have on diesel and urea, and will be seeking to amend our energy requirements to ensure a local supply of crude oil. And so on.

But, no. Rather than attempt to be honest with the public, Mr Bowen decided to play word games with Mr Bartlett, with an absurd, patronising and cartoonish amateur theatrics performance. Scrunching up his face as if to portray genuine confusion (perhaps he’s been studying Tucker Carlson), Mr Bowen said, ‘I’m not sure how you could assert, Liam, that the war in Iran is the fault of Australian renewable energy, I really don’t understand that logic.’

No wonder many Australians hold our political class in utter contempt. Only a halfwit would interpret Mr Bartlett’s clear question and twist it to the point of absurdity. In no conceivable way did Mr Bartlett assert that the war in Iran was due to our renewables. What he did question was whether the government had any concerns about its renewables obsession now that the green ideology had come face to face with grim reality, and reality has won.

But Mr Bowen, clearly delighted with his own dissembling, pressed on. With Tucker-face now fully implemented, our Energy Minister rephrased his dopey comment, saying ‘If you’re suggesting that somehow renewable energy policy has led to an interruption of the supply of oil from the Middle East, I’m just going to respectfully disagree with you.’ And with that the minister tried to move on to other journalists, but Mr Bartlett wouldn’t let go and what followed was even more juvenile, with Mr Bowen trying to play silly semantic games and, in exasperation, Mr Bartlett finally asking ‘What are you afraid of?’

And therein lies the rub. The Albanese government is terrified. They are terrified that they have left this country completely exposed. They are terrified that the public are no longer buying the climate scare campaign. They are terrified that the renewables policy at the heart of their entire economic plan may – say it in hushed tones – be based on a lie.

That lie sits at the very heart of Mr Bowen’s idiotically named portfolio, ‘Climate Change and Energy’. You may as well have a portfolio named ‘Fairy Floss and Economics’. Climate change is at best a cultish, Malthusian, elitist, green/communist ideology. Energy, meanwhile, is the most critical component of our entire prosperity, opportunity, lifestyle and economic future. The linking of the two in a portfolio and title is farcical so it is hardly surprising that every policy that comes from such an entity is equally silly, and that in turn explains why the minister – a man who’s never been accused of being endowed with an abundance of intellectual flair – is incapable of giving meaningful answers to perfectly reasonable questions.

Just before the Easter break, terrified by the idea that, in a time of war, petrol rations might be needed, all Mr Bowen could come up with was to tell drivers to get an EV or alternatively to ‘check your tyre pressure’ in order to conserve fuel.

Australians who are waking up to the fact that we have been left devoid of sufficient energy in an uncertain and demanding future, might like to ponder another phrase for which Mr Bowen is rightly lauded: ‘If you don’t like our policies, don’t vote for us.’ Roll on the next election.