This whole thread is completely bonkers.

There is no, No, NO upcoming impeachment trial. Finished nada, over. As much as some might want to continue to impeach him until something sticks, it ain't gunna happen.

They've had two goes and both failed. The second is now shown to have been, at least in part, based on lies and withheld information concerning the infamous Georgia phone calls.

Oh....and did I mention, there is no upcoming impeachment trial.

Foxy, you said;
Not sure how I'm going to vote at the next election.

Well neither do I. Under the usual circumstances I would vote Liberal
but as the Libs are now advocating the same policies on energy as
Labour and the Greens it makes for a dilemma.
If they allow Lidell to close before the next election, they will move
heaven & earth to stop it closing before an election, it will start
rolling blackouts and then they could lose the election.
So how do I vote ? Either way we are damned to blackouts.
Then a year after that the Yallourn station is to close.
So Lidell takes out 900 Megawatt and Yallourn takes out 1500 Megawatt
and that raises the question where do we get the power on a cold still night ?
There is no way we can afford 32000 Megawatt/hr battery.
I am not even sure they could get enough lithium to build it.
There is a world shortage at present, although it could be a Nickle Iron battery.
As it stands we are damned if we do and damned if we don't.
The farmers are yet to realise what the CO2 policy means to their herds.
I think we perhaps should vote One Nation as they at least realise
what the policies mean if applied.
Trouble is not enough of them to form government.
The upshot for the likes of us I think is this;
If the Libs are government when the blackouts get bad enough they
will dump the policy.
If Labour are government they will press on with the total grid
collapse because they need the support of the greens.
Is this what is known as Hobson's Choice ?

Oh....and did I mention, there is no upcoming impeachment trial.

It seems the usual suspects have decided to ignore that bit of lunacy.

Dear Bazz,

Sorry it's taken so long to reply - but I'd used
up all my posts and had to wait until now.
Many of Australia's remaining coal-fired power
stations are likely to close over the next
decade or two as renewable energy becomes more
cost competitive and the pressure increases to
meet emissions targets. I think that Liddell is
due to close in 2022.

You're right in raising the point about rapid structural
changes happening due to closing large plants in
regional areas. It is important to have measures in
place to ease the transition. I'm not sure of what
the plans are of either major party but the government will
have its work cut out that's for sure.

Foxy, the problem is that the arithmetic is so simple that no politician
can believe it.
To provide a 100% supply at 99.9% reliability by means of wind and solar
requires duplication of the generation system.
This happens first because wind turbines only provide annually 35% of
their rated output. So first up three times as many have to be installed
in a number of different locations to improve the chance of getting
the required output.
Australia is probably big enough to get the spread of wind systems
but at what cost ?
Think along these lines Foxy and you will see it for yourself.
Then batteries, well no one asks from where will you get the power
to recharge them ?

It really is simple arithmetic.

Foxy, I forgot to respond to your comment;
as renewable energy becomes more cost competitive

That belief is at the heart of the problem.
It is true that a wind turbine produces the cheapest electricity.
That economy however is destroyed by the necessary duplication.
The attempt to improve reliability with batteries further destroys
the economy of wind and solar.
Then to top it off, the whole grid has to be redesigned to enable
the total amount of demand to be supplied from anywhere to anywhere.