Its not about what they say its about....This brilliantly sums it up.

http://youtu.be/5U2UoR-oB1M

(ps neil Oliver is a treasure. Watch the rest of his docos...
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=neil+oliver+documentary)

AJ. Not interested in the climate change debate, just simply decarbonizing our economy before it's tanked via impending carbon tariffs!

As for climate change, one would need to be blind Freddy not to see that it has changed!

Maybe that has something to do with carbon? Maybe it doesn't Maybe we can do something about it? Maybe we can't?

But whatever we do, do, it cannot include higher energy prices that make air conditioning unaffordable or force what's left of manufacturing offshore, when our goal needs to be to bring it back big time via sane energy policies and genuine tax reform!

The latter manifesting as an unavoidable flat tax set at 15% that every boy and his dog pay above a very generous, tax-free threshold! I'm not getting into the climate change debate with folk who are welded to coal! Given they have all closed their minds and refuse to look at the incontrovertible evidence!

Simply put, I see this as a once in a thousand years to get out from under foreign control and ownership and a Godsend economic opportunity to build an economy that is destined to be the biggest on earth!

And as with all western-style economies, supported by just two economic pillars, energy and capital! And by ensuring neither is white-anted by foreign interests or Chinese imperialists/Chinese capitalists/Chinese money/ownership! And the least costly available!

My way ticks all those boxes and sets us up toward the stated economic future!

I get that most posters commenting here are like you, totally devoid of any sophisticated understanding of economics, but like yourself, prepared to rubbish the hell out of those who like me, do!
Alan B.

That the Libs finally caved to the CAGW hysteria is hardly surprising - they've been desperately trying to find an electorally viable path to that end since 2013.

While the facts that GrahamY mentions in the article are correct and should be enough to, at the very least, give pause to the rush to de-carbonise the economy, the truth is the facts are no longer the issue. The CO2 fetishists decided long ago to stop arguing the facts and simply to repeat mantras. I saw one of the ABC talking-heads assert t'other day that scientists have determined that the climate is warming faster than previously anticipated. That is patently wrong on every level, yet went unchallenged by the balance of the supposedly informed panellists.

And that's the way the entire issue is now addressed - make claims based on the propaganda and deny the actual science while claiming to be supported by the science.

The Libs think that those on the right ultimately have no other home and will, due to preference voting, eventually number Lib ahead of ALP which is all that matters.

Since 2013, I've been advocating that the only way to get a Liberal party that has Australia's interests, rather than their own careers, at the forefront of their mind, is to vote for minor right-wing parties and then preference the ALP.

Sure, we end up with an ALP government. But seeing a difference between that and the current government will be difficult. So a term or two of ALP government may be the only thing that causes the Libs to return to their roots. (I say this more in hope than certainty).

Additionally, given the storm-clouds on the horizon, winning the next election may be a poison chalice. The ALP is even less suited to navigating that than the Libs and the quicker we get to the bottom, the faster we can start repairing the damage done to the country in the last two terms.

Alison Jane,

AlanB has been raving about his thorium fantasies for at least 5 years now. His entire belief is based on some dodgy Youtube videos he saw.

But the fact is that there is no working thorium power plant anywhere in the world. Not even 1 watt of commercial thorium power has ever been generated.

That might (MIGHT) change next decade (China is talking of having a proof of concept plant ready in a year or three) but in the meantime AlanB is talking rubbish.

it is amazing how the British conservatives strongly feel that humans are causing global warming, at least the vast majority of them, yet their Australian counterparts do not.

Who is wrong?

I suspect Australia's conservatives are wrong, but that markets will ultimately force Australia's hand in any case.

At least, the Treasurer understands this reality

Mhaze,

The 3 things that greenies use to protest against nuclear power are:

a reactor failure can spew out radioactivity. The MSR reactor fueled with mostly thorium is inherently safe, i.e. even if every single safety system is compromised the reactor will essentially shut itself down.
the waste material stays radioactive for thousands of years. The waste material from the reactor is mostly very short half-life isotopes that will almost entirely disappear after about 300 years.
the waste material can be used to make nuclear weapons. The isotopes from Thorium can be used to make nuclear weapons. (while U233 could theoretically be used it is so radioactive that it makes storage or handling of the weapons nearly impossible)

However, getting a new design accepted by regulators is so hard and expensive that such a new design will take a while to get accepted.