We can cover millions of acres of ground with solar panels and conceivably create gigawatts of energy at 5 cents PKWH, we could export to the world? For an outlay of a trillion-plus AUD? Multiply that number by four then adjust or a hundred years of inflation in order to compete on a level playing field with MSR thorium/nuclear waste burning MSR.

Desert ground that just needs water to become broad-scale, million acre, agriculture/food and fibre production

Given the useful life of solar panels and the cost 25 years out, then another 25 years, then another and another! What will they cost then and again later? Or are we unable to contemplate our future beyond 25 years max?

Why is it stupidity personified cannot see past the next three or four years as they squander the peoples' money?

If we replace the above with a MSR thorium nuclear model, then the life of a properly maintained project could be stretched to 100 years, with no more than routine maintenance, even as the income earned is ever adjusted upward for inflation/the CPI!?

WE shouldn't further ratify this BS treaty but withdraw and wash our hands of it, given it cannot be universally applied or enforced! And tantamount to shooting ourselves in our own economic foot! And for what?
Alan B.

Australia needs nuclear weapons to defend itself from nuclear armed Communism.

Australia needs to position itself as a non-aligned nation, not cow tailing to the United States, or acting belligerently towards our neighbours, including China. Only through cooperation can all nations find true world peace. Nuclear disarmament should be our absolute priority. As for claims of "Australia needs nuclear weapons to defend itself from nuclear armed Communism." Absolute hogwash!

What should be and what actually is are two very different kettles of fish, to coin a phrase. One can, like Paul145, bury the head somewhere warm and comfortable, or deep in the suburbs of St Petersburg and refuse to address our literal reality or allow sanity to prevail and become a nuclear-powered economy with enough nuclear capacity to ensure we never need to use them!
Alan B.

We need to lock up Paul1405 in solitary confinement as traitors to Australia- and only allow them to ingest from Libraries of non- communist books in a communist prison. What delicious torture. Maybe we can let him out for exercise once a month to mix with the non-racial, mixed-sex prison population- I'm sure it will be an interesting exercise in gang warfare and sexual dominance.

Paul, you obviously do not understand the relationship between China
and other countries. It is not a brotherhood of all but a relationship
as defined by Pres Xi Jing Pin;
The United States is not a sovereign country.
If the US is not sovereign, where do you think we stand ?

All other states are Vassal states to the Central Kingdom.
As such they all owe tribute to the Central Kingdom.
It all comes down to their natural assumption of their superior place
in the world.
This is the basis of their insisting that they own part of the open
ocean and can forbid others from transiting that ocean.
They could just as easily declare the Tasman Sea forbidden to
Australian, New Zealand and other shipping.
They believe they can lock up whole nations and get very offended
if you question any of their imperial actions. They ban Australian
trade because we had the affrontry to ask how the virus got out.

Paul, you need to come down out of your ivory tower and see what
the real world is really about.