Ardern is an idiot. How could you not take sides when you are threatened by the Chinese Communist Party!

Equally idiotic is Pat Conroy and his bizarre comments about 'partnering' with the enemy. Not surprising I suppose, coming from a member of the government whose defence minister has said that climate change is a greater threat than Communism.

Whether or not it has been a good week for Australia remains to be seen. Will what has been talked about be put into action? More times than not these days, talk turns out to be just that.

Yes. However we could do much more to address the number one issue in the pacific, i.e., climate change! All while emphasizing the growth in coal-fired power in China.

For mine that means we need to transition away from coal and to MSR thorium (nuclear) and prices of just 1 cent PKWH! And 5 cents less PKWH than the best the renewables can do!

Moreover, we could start to mass produce SMR as MSR thorium with the whole setup contained in shipping containers that can be trucked or shipped to almost anywhere.

The few places that we could not reach, we could chopper them in. Some as gifts that keep on giving for decades to power space age desal and charge all the new electric vehicles, trucks, buses, boats, planes, tractors and cars.

A shipping container in the belly of a 747 could provide MSR thorium power to the new engines that would replace conventional jets where water as super heated steam would become the fuel, i.e., as catalytically cracked water molecule, hydrogen and oxygen, and the exhaust, pristine water vapour.

We really do need to crack on in this area so we can transition out of coal when the price we get for it falls below the cost of mining it not too far ahead in time.

Write to your minister to put the above case for me and our fellow Aussies. And failing it doesn't get past unpaid public servants get a petition up that will have to be read in the house. I'm housebound and unable to do this myself otherwise, wouldn't ask! TBC.
Alan B.

"New Zealand has a key role to play in securing stability in our region. It can't do that if it follows the advice of its Prime Minister!"

Australia and New Zealand will be nuked and we won't have countries to bother with if people listen to you.
You're not fighting for the interests of Australia, you're fighting for the interests of the royals, elites and bankers.

NZ doesn't have a 'key role' in anything. A big dairy and sheep farm. No defence. A burden to Australia.

A good week for Australia in the Pacific? As the man with the wooden leg said, that is a matter of a pinion.

Yes, we were there with the cheque book out and ready to dibble comparative pennies. And make some nice sounding speeches about families. But the real stuff like genuinely addressing climate change, we were AWOL!

To date the labor government has made the Morrison government look good! In almost every polly waffle they've annunciated. But are very obviously welded to coal as far out as the eye can see! And looking good on the world stage!

I don't think I'll live to see sanity prevail and a transition to nuclear as MSR thorium, regardless of the massive economic boost that transition would give to Australia. Just when it needs it most!

No, we will muddle along with the trillion plus debt around our neck like the flying Dutchman's Albatross. As interest payments take more and more of a very skinny federal budget, while every thing in sight gets progressively more and more expensive and the skyrocketing cost of coal fired energy, drives what's left of our manufacturing sector, offshore! To quote ttbn, Australia is rooted!
Alan B.

I have asked this previously but never got a reply. What are the people of the Pacific islands doing towards detrimental climate change i.e. rising sea levels ?
Are sea levels actually rising or are the mostly volcanic base islands subsiding ? Are the island communities curbing diesel generator use ? From what I have read islands appear/disappear at times. It just hasn't happened in recent history apart from an island between NZ & Tonga some 100 years ago.
Yes, large nations are causing utterly unwarranted pollution which has to affect global temperature but climate ? Well, I recall lots of reading about pre-history & various ice-ages etc but no mention of industrial activity. Perhaps there was upheaval so massive that nothing of any such civilisations is left. Atlantis may have been the most recent & if so the next one must be just about due no matter how much more tax we pay or how many billions we spend on that particular bandwagon !
I'm certain that creating huge underground voids & large-scale depressurisation of gas & oil chambers does have an impact that we're not yet appreciating but people demand first world commodities with one hand held out whilst writing complaints with the other hand, denouncing the manufacturers who please their every whim !
This planet has only one massive problem, the many stupid people chasing more than they need !