It is called progress
Belly,
No, it's called necessity is the Mother of invention.

Aidan,

The whole argument that renewables are cheaper than coal fired generation is laughable. If they were then they could survive without subsidies, and Germany would not be building HELE coal generators to replace their nuclear power stations. Once you add in the cost of storage and the additional reticulation, nuclear is cheaper than renewables and safer.

SR,

The mining tax did not apply to gas and oil which already has a super tax. Also the mining tax got bugger all returns, which didn't stop Labor spending what they promised it would return.

Surely most of us remember the one pound note?
Two dollars in today's money
Inflation, big impact for small word
I could jump in my car at Ingelburn fill the tank but a pack of Rothman,s cigarettes and drive to Wollongong
Have quite a few beers and arrive home Sunday
Not a chance now BUT inflation will have its say, 50 years from now the price we pay for renewable s will look huge, but so will our income

Shadow,
>The whole argument that renewables are cheaper than coal fired generation is laughable.
Fools often laugh at the truth. I think it's some sort of coping mechanism.

>If they were then they could survive without subsidies,
And on long term contracts at least, they can. But in our NEM it's more profitable to create a shortage of power than to fill one, so there needs to become sort of incentive for more generation infrastructure if we want to bring the price down.

>and Germany would not be building HELE coal generators to replace their nuclear power stations.
ITYF they're not any more, and are planning to close all those coal fired power stations by 2038.
And remember, Australia is a much sunnier country than Germany, and has a lower population density, so the economic ceasefire renewables here should be a lot better than it is there.

>Once you add in the cost of storage and the additional reticulation, nuclear is cheaper than renewables and safer.
Possibly if you make heroic assumptions about the cost of nuclear. But when Britain has failed to get good value nuclear power, how do you expect Australia to?

Aidan,

Serves you right for laughing at the truth:

Here is a list of coal fired power plants very recently built in Germany.

http://airclim.org/acidnews/germany-still-constructing-new-coal-power-stations

I also remember Merkel promising that nuclear power would be replaced with renewables about a decade ago. 0% coal in Germany is as likely as federal labor producing a budget surplus.

As for renewable surviving "And on long term contracts at least, they can" This is only true if the contracts include subsidies and guaranteed revenue.

How anything that has people controlling the strings can actually be cheaper is the stuff of fables !