"No mention of Australia’s world-leading rooftop solar, our declining wholesale prices (until coal outages spike them), or the structural changes making 20th-century baseload thinking obsolete."

Indeed there was mention of these things, via saturation, the prospect of rooftop feed being remotely switched off, and the deferred closure of fossil fuel generation.

"The most secretive energy lobbying in this country has always come from the fossil fuel sector.

Why is secrecy okay for them?"

That's projection on your part John. Cheap coal fired power has been a major economic driver in Australia. The wind and solar con has always fallen well short of what was promised, and with big price hikes, huge taxpayer subsidies and falling reliability, the economic consequences are all too apparent.

In its efforts to trash the economy with Net Zero, change the climate, and "protect" the environment - except where they plonk windmills and solar panels - the unhinged Albanese government is going to spend more and create more restrictions by setting up another quango to be called the National Environment Agency to “overhaul” federal environment law.

A bit late to stop the damage they, nobody else, has done to the environment and farmland with windmills, panels, and pylons.

They are even claiming that these will remove red tape now impeding ‘projects’, while saying there will be powers of “stop-work orders in the case of unacceptable environmental risks”.

Who will decide what is an environmental risk? An ideological minister of the most ideological government ever.

The Opposition and the Greens are against the idea.

Ridd didn’t simply "report a reef was alive," Fester.

//How does that relate to him reporting that a reef that was supposed to be dead was in fact alive?//

He framed the entire scientific consensus as corrupt, without credible evidence. His reef "discovery" was a cherry-picked misrepresentation used to undermine broader coral studies.

//Ideology would better describe what motivated JCU's reaction to Dr Ridd's scientific research.//

False.

The High Court found JCU acted lawfully not because of his research, but because he repeatedly breached codes of conduct. That’s employment law, not ideology.

//...the more renewables there are, the more expensive the power.//

Germany’s energy prices pre-date renewables scaling and are shaped by taxes, market structure, and grid design. And France’s nuclear fleet was built under a nationalised monopoly in the 1970s, not free-market liberalism.

You leave that bit out.

//The economic decline in Germany coincides with...//

Sure - but again, so does COVID, global inflation, and the war in Ukraine. Are they all caused by renewables too?

//CO2 emissions in wind and solar Germany are 75% higher per capita than they are in nuclear France.//

Again, misleading.

Germany’s emissions come from its legacy fossil fuel mix, not its newer wind and solar buildout.

//...the reason for the wholesale price drop is grid saturation...//

And what do you think "grid saturation" means? That too much cheap energy is being produced! You’re pointing to growing pains, not proof that renewables are a "con."

//Taxpayers pay for wind and solar generation whether or not it is used.//

Yes, as they’ve done for coal and gas for decades. Fossil fuel subsidies are still much larger globally than renewables support.

//Indeed there was mention of these things, via saturation, the prospect of rooftop feed being remotely switched off...//

Which proves my point: rooftop solar exists in such abundance that it’s reshaping the grid. That’s not a failure, that’s success requiring upgrades.

//The wind and solar con has always fallen well short of what was promised...//

No, wind and solar now consistently outbid fossil fuels at auction. Their variability is a technical challenge, not a scam.

Something needs to be done about the Belarusians.
They are launching unauthorised hot all balloons.
We'll never make net zero at this rate.

Lithuania vows to shoot down Belarus smuggler balloons disrupting air traffic
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-27/lithuania-plans-belarus-border-close-after-balloon-disruptions/105940242

"Lithuania has drawn up plans to shut its border crossings with Belarus indefinitely, after the capital's airport was repeatedly disrupted by suspected sightings of balloons carrying contraband cigarettes.

The repeated disruption has prompted the country's prime minister to vow to shoot down balloons, accusing its Russian-backed neighbour of being part of a campaign of 'hybrid warfare' against NATO."

'hybrid warfare'?
So this is a state sanctioned?
- 'The Great Russian Free Cigarette Plot of 2025'?
Alexander Lukashenko's side hustle - Selling the cheap smokes?
Maybe Putin's in on it directly, he managing the entire operation from the Kremlin?
Why delivery by helium weather balloons though?
He's a sneaky one that Putin.
Seems like a lot of trouble to go to, why not send heroin smuggled from Afghanistan? that would be more believable.
Cocaine for Zelensky?
How do they even know where the helium balloons will land to collect the smokes, do they have an air-tag?
And does the receiver send the hot air balloon back with the cash?
What if the wind is blowing the wrong way?
They Lithuanians could end up sending the money to Sweden instead.
Not a very well though out smuggling operation.
Silly Putin.

Drones would be far better for a smuggling operation one would think.
Maybe the real crime here is the price of a packet of smokes in the EU.
Their government must be robbing their people too.
Maybe that's the REAL hybrid warfare.

John,

Dr Ridd was first acted on JCU for reporting on the live reef that was supposed to be dead. The High Court found that Dr Ridd was within he academic freedom doing this and JCU had no grounds to act on him for it. It was Dr Ridd's complaints about JCU's groundless action that got him dismissed.

What Dr Ridd found from his research was a growing reef in good health, so wouldn't cherry picking better describe examples of dead or dying reef, such as the report ho sent his researchers to check on?

As for Germany's high CO2 being a fossil fuels legacy, why didn't France have the same outcome? Your claim is nonsense. And neither is there anything illiberal about France's nuclear build, at least no more illiberal than the pursuit of net zero in Australia

CO2 is a global problem, and global problems need global solutions. Multinational cooperation to mass produce nuclear reactors could repeat France's effort half a century ago on a global scale. Wind and solar are barely 2% after decades of development. They have failed as they are failing her

Fester,

You're just repeating yourself - substituting recycled talking points for engagement with what you actually argued.

//Dr Ridd was first acted on JCU for reporting on the live reef that was supposed to be dead.//

That's just your headline, not actually what happened.

Ridd publicly accused colleagues of fraud and scientific misconduct without evidence, breached confidentiality agreements, and ignored repeated directives. The High Court upheld JCU’s right to discipline him for the latter.

//The High Court found that Dr Ridd was within he [sic] academic freedom doing this...//

Wrong again. They ruled JCU couldn’t punish him for the initial comments alone. But they could and did sack him for persistent insubordination, not research.

//It was Dr Ridd's complaints about JCU's groundless action that got him dismissed.//

Yes, and those complaints breached confidentiality agreements he had signed. That’s called a contractual breach, not academic martyrdom.

//What Dr Ridd found from his research was a growing reef in good health...//

Cherry-picking is the issue. A healthy reef section doesn’t negate widespread bleaching documented across hundreds of reefs. That’s like filming one green paddock during a drought and claiming the whole region is fine.

//Why didn't France have the same outcome [as Germany]?//

Because France made different choices decades earlier. France went nuclear during the oil shocks of the 1970s. Germany doubled down on coal after Fukushima. That’s policy divergence, not proof that wind and solar are to blame for CO2 levels.

//Neither is there anything illiberal about France's nuclear build...//

France’s fleet was built under a centralised, state-controlled monopoly - exactly the kind of "big government" model you're normally railing against.

//Wind and solar are barely 2% after decades...//

Flat-out false. Globally, wind and solar together made up over 12% of electricity generation in 2022, and over 30% in Australia. They're the fastest-growing sources of new power.

//They have failed...//

Only if you ignore record investment, falling costs, and emissions-free generation. By that standard, I guess smartphones "failed" in the 1990s too?