Barnaby Joyce’s attack on renewable energy development as a “swindle” and wind turbines as “filth” is low-rent retail politics at its worst.
It is also a betrayal of his own constituents hopeful of attracting new industries to save their faltering regional economies.
Opposition spokesman for veterans affairs Barnaby Joyce during the rally against renewable energy.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The polarising Nationals MP joined climate deniers, fossil boosters and nuclear proponents at a Rally Against Reckless Renewables outside federal parliament on Tuesday that called for a suspension of wind and solar farms.
“These are not farms; they are factories, they are industrial dumps; environmental dumps,” Joyce told the rally. “It’s a massive multinational swindle underpinned by your taxpayer dollars.”
Joyce’s Nationals leader David Littleproud wants new renewable energy projects in regional areas stopped immediately and called for Australia to downgrade its commitment under the Paris Agreement, signalling a major escalation in the political brawl over climate policy.
Regional communities and farmland cannot cope with more wind and solar farms, as well as transmission lines, Littleproud said, arguing that renewable energy should be delivered with more solar panels on the roofs of big commercial buildings in cities.
Littleproud wanted the Albanese government to convene a national energy summit to develop new policies. The Coalition is also calling for discussion on the ban on nuclear energy, which they argue should be developed to replace ageing coal-fired power stations.
But events have moved on and the Albanese government has committed to nearly double the volume of renewable energy in the grid to 82 per cent by 2030, a key measure of its legally binding climate target to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050.
Joyce’s attack on renewable energy is low-rent politics
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07.02.2024
Barnaby Joyce’s attack on renewable energy development as a “swindle” and wind turbines as “filth” is low-rent retail politics at its worst.
It is also a betrayal of his own constituents hopeful of attracting new industries to save their faltering regional economies.
Opposition spokesman for veterans affairs Barnaby Joyce during the rally against renewable energy.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The polarising Nationals MP joined climate deniers, fossil........
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