The Liberals’ Downhill Racers

Could this be a coincidence? Zali Steggall, former Olympic skier and admirer of Malcolm Turnbull, is to contest Tony Abbott’s seat of Warringah.  At her launch on January 27 she said her decision to declare as an independent was motivated by a desire to promote the “sensible centre”.

That term is code for climate change, the issue which is supported by agitprop from the massive funding that scurrilous and self-interested entities have at their fingertips, courtesy of funding for renewables, Great Barrier Reef and the associated green-ish endeavours governments of all stripes have provided.  She made this clear

“I have been consulting with Australia’s leading climate change and economics experts. I’m very lucky to have Professor Tim Flannery here today, and he and other experts have agreed to advise me on climate strategy and how we can best achieve the results we need to achieve for Warringah and Australia.”

Whoa there!  Tim Flannery is backing the campaign. This serial repeater of alarmist nonsense has been a prime mover in foisting massive costs on the community. Jamie Spry has compiled them all, but a list of his biggest howlers would need to include:

• In 2007, he said even the rain that falls in future will never fill the dams, causing garden-variety gullible politicians (and the likes of Malcolm Turnbull) to opt for desal plants, at a cost to taxpayers of over $15 billion, none of which are operating beyond token amounts.
• Again in 2007, the paleontologist-turned-climate guru proclaimed the future of energy was geothermal “hot rocks”. A business (which failed) in which he was heavily involved flung $90 million of taxpayer support down ill-conceived holes in the South Australian outback.
• In his 2005 multi-prizewinning book, The Weather Makers, he projected a vast increase in hurricanes. The facts, as usual, proved him wrong

As an aid to Ms Steggall’s ambitions for Warringah, Flannery carries extra gravitas as a political asset, having been appointed just three days ago, purely by happenstance you must realise, to the board of the Australian Museum.  The Museum says,

The Governor of NSW, in consultation with the Minister for the Arts Don Harwin, appoints our Trustees.  Presumably, the Minister for the Arts would have consulted with Cabinet or at least the Premier in the selection of a Museum Director.

Harwin, an asset of the Michael Photios-dominated NSW Liberal “moderates” wing, has form in promoting the renewables myth, to which I adverted here.  He has argued, to cite but one example, that “the era of baseload coal is coming to an end, fossil fuel plants are not a guarantee of reliability, wind and solar offer the cheapest forms of new generation”.

Minister Harwin mistakenly presents renewables as cheap. Yes, really. He also believes that solar and wind — the electricity they produce being, by definition, “intermittent” and therefore undependable — is more reliable than the coal plants providing 90% of NSW’s power. Idiocy or brochuresmanship on behalf of a matey industry? That’s for readers examining their latest bills to decide.

What isn’t up for debate is the failure of the southern Australian electricity market these past few days, which have witnessed, along with load-shedding and brownouts, the wind/solar cocktail supplying just 4% of South Australian needs on Thursday, January 25, and 42% the following day. Want intermittent? Do the renewables rent-seekers have a deal for you!

Harwin offered no comment on the Flannery appointment.  This is hardly surprising, as some might well take the Australia Museum gig as a curious reward for an alarmist who has worked tirelessly to claim the crown as the king of wrongology.

Perhaps more alarming for those who would wish to see the Liberal Party return to the defence of Sir Robert Menzies’ “forgotten Australians” (take that to mean families gouged by ever-rising power bills) is the decision of a leading light in a purportedly conservative government to remain mute while the very same Flannery he recently appointed aids an independent targeting a sitting MP of his own party and ex-prime minister to boot. Those who see that as sabotage will wonder why they have yet to hear calls for Harwin’s resignation.

They say a house divided cannot stand. Perhaps such a house doesn’t deserve to stand.