I’ll be brief today as the Senate is sitting and there is a pile of legislation that needs an injection of common sense. These include the government setting up a ‘slush fund’ purporting to be a new bank, welfare reform that won’t really reform anything substantive, citizenship half-measures towards restoring Australian values, a political-fix savings scheme that breaks the government promise of ‘no further changes to super’ and important higher education reforms that look doomed to failure.
Just another day in a Senate that isn’t working to our advantage but instead is providing headlines to those who treat politics like show business.
However, government seems to have caught one healthy bout of common sense this week. It seems that, after years of denial, they finally see just how their decisions have damaged our electricity market. Whilst they haven’t done a 180 degree turn, they have taken a page out of the Australian Conservatives playbook.
The RET subsidy will be abolished after 2020, calling the bluff of the rent seekers who insist solar and wind power are cheaper than coal and gas base load power. The government have also conceded that renewables must provide the equivalence of base load power rather than intermittent power.
These are small but significant concessions from politicians who have been drinking the climate Kool-Aid for years.
It’s another reminder why the Australian Conservatives are important in shaping political debate. Those who get too cosy in their chambers of political groupthink are rarely willing to take the tougher path. Our nation needs leaders who are prepared to hack away clearing the path less travelled to make it easier for others to follow.
Both the major parties have demonstrated they will not lead but are willing to follow. They need a conservative guide to lead them in the right direction.
Australian Conservatives provide that considered and principled leadership. Others may seek to grab the headlines after the hard work has been done but instead of personality cults our nation needs leadership built around predictability, principle and values. That’s what Australian Conservatives are all about.
Thanks for supporting a better way.