Honestly, we couldn’t cook a snag at a barbie, these days.
Ross Gittins has finally discovered Australia’s number one economic problem.
Or, rather, he’s aping someone else’s take.
Earlier this year, the boss of the Australia Institute, Dr Richard Denniss, caused a stir by claiming that the government takes more money from uni students through HECS than it collects from the petroleum resource rent tax. It was such a strange assertion the ABC set its fact-checkers on him. They had to admit his numbers were right.
And though it may seem an odd comparison, it’s a valid one. The government makes graduates contribute to the cost of their education because it doesn’t have enough money to do everything it would like to. In which case, why is it giving our gas away to big companies?
Denniss reminds us that, in Norway, they do it the other way around: tax their oil and gas industry heavily and give their kids free higher education.
Yes, but as all Australian policymakers know, children are there to be abused in every way that they can think of.
Meanwhile, unbelievably, WA gas reservation is breaking down.
Western Australia is heading toward a gas supply crunch, with prices more than doubling since 2019 and further tightening looming as two coal-fired power stations close by 2029, according to new analysis from energy consultancy EnergyQuest.
Additional supply, such as Woodside’s Browse, will only temper the price increases, according to gas industry consultancy EnergyQuest.
EnergyQuest head of consulting Matt Paull said Western Australia’s major gas users – including mining companies and power generators – face limited alternatives to gas for at least the next decade, but supply will begin to decline in a few years.
Surely, WA can’t follow the East Coast disaster? Surely.
Next, it will be this out West, via The Daily Telegraph:
Parramatta Council’s polarising decision to explore a potential gas ban for units outside the CBD could cost up to $40,000 just to gauge ratepayers’ opinions, despite opponents adamant the idea would fail immediately.
The decision was made during a rescission motion at Monday night’s meeting after the chamber rejected the idea for consulting the public about electrical fit-outs in July.
Labor councillors and independent Kellie Darley backed Greens’ councillor Judy Greenwood’s motion to put the plan on exhibition and, if it wins support, incorporating it into the council’s development control plan.
Cr Greenwood said going electric would deliver broad health and cost benefits to the community, and said gas prohibitions would be exempt from houses.
This makes virtually zero contribution to emissions reduction while charging households $30k per head to make no energy cost savings because gas still sets the marginal cost of electricity in the wholesale market.
The gas export cartel spews five times the volumes of carbon to export LNG for free, nearly all of it to China, which sends it back as warships to end your freedom.
I know the world is a messy place, but this is madness.
