Carbon at the Checkout
I HAVE made no secret of my position against the Albanese Government’s unrealistic Net Zero aspirations. I am more interested in the aspirations of Dawson residents and their ability to pay the bills and put food on the table.
To be clear: where possible, Australia should be minimising our carbon footprint; however, that needs to be done in a sensible way and cannot come at any cost. We need to be smart with our energy mix and maintain a balance of all available technologies. That is why last year the National Party moved to firm up our position and dump the current unrealistic Net Zero targets. The Liberals followed soon after, and under the leadership of David Littleproud and Angus Taylor, the Coalition is taking the fight to a government that is more focused on patting itself on the back than facing reality.
Labor promised their solar and wind-only strategy would lower household power bills by $275. Four years on, what has happened to those bills? People are hurting, yet the government continues to peddle the fantasy: “Stick with the solar and wind-only plan, and it will all turn around.”
The government’s Net Zero experiment carries an eye-watering price tag of $9 trillion. And for what return?
Australia produces around one per cent of global emissions. Even if we shut down every tractor, turned off every light, and parked up every ute today, the global impact would be negligible. The domestic impact, however, would be enormous. We are already seeing some of these impacts now.
Australia’s current emissions reduction run rate sits at about one million tonnes per year. This is a far cry from the 17.5 million reduction required each and every year to reach Net Zero by 2050. That is a large disparity, and the run rate required will just keep getting bigger. At the current rate, Net Zero will not be reached until the year 2467. That means to reach the 2050 target, much more is required. And remember: to get even to this point, we have already done most of the "easy" things.
Across Australia, millions of hectares of prime grazing and cropping land are being retired in pursuit of carbon offsets. Productive farms are being turned into unmanaged scrub so corporations can buy credits, tick a box, and produce glossy marketing material spruiking that they are “doing their bit.” The reality, though, is that less food is produced here at home by fewer suppliers, which translates to higher prices at the supermarket.
When an airline asks, “Do you want to offset your carbon footprint on this flight?”, what they are really doing is buying credits, not actually reducing their output. Carbon does not disappear; it simply reappears at the checkout.
This is not an argument against sensible environmental stewardship. It is an argument against reckless, unrealistic targets with no credible pathway and no regard for cost or the impact on everyday Australians. The energy mix must prioritise affordability, reliability, and long-term energy security.
Coal, gas, renewables, biofuels, and nuclear should all be on the table. The test for the right energy mix should not be whether it sounds good in a press release. The test should be: Does it make life more affordable for Australians? Does it help or hinder our farms, our workshops, our small businesses, and our homes?
Because in the end, Labor’s Net Zero 2050 targets are hurting every Aussie, and we are all paying for the carbon at the checkout.
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Contact: Amanda Wright | Media & Communications Adviser
P | 07 4944 0662 M | 0455 456 705 E | Amanda.Wright@aph.gov.au