It looks like the penny has finally dropped for the federal Liberal party, at least. Peter Dutton finally seems to have realised that conservatives don’t win votes by aping extremist green-left wokery. First, Dutton made the brave, decent decision to oppose the racist “Indigenous Voice” referendum, over the whining, hand-wringing and tantrums of the soggy, wet blue-greens in his own party.
Now, he’s striking back at Labor and the Greens at their sorest point with middle and working-class Australia: soaring energy bills caused by the demented climate obsessions of the wealthy.
Peter Dutton will reverse Anthony Albanese’s sweeping market and regulatory interventions in the oil and gas sector, and rally resources companies to “fight” alongside the Coalition against energy policies driven by Labor’s “renewable zealotry”.
“Labor sees businesses and industry as instruments of the state”
Even better, Dutton is reminding Australians that government is too often the problem, not the solution. He’s also remembering that the resources states like WA, Qld and SA are key battlegrounds where Labor lost most electorates, especially outside the capital cities.
The Opposition Leader on Thursday has invoked former US president Ronald Reagan and pledged to wind back government interventions.
Speaking by videolink to the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration conference in Adelaide, Mr Dutton warned oil and gas executives that “we’re witnessing one of the most interventionist governments in our nation’s history”. With energy and competition regulators warning of severe gas shortages and blackouts, Mr Dutton accused the government of being “deeply sceptical of the free market, of individual enterprise and autonomy”.
“Labor sees businesses and industry as instruments of the state,” Mr Dutton said.
This is a double-whammy broadside at Labor’s “Net Zero” obsession, and demonisation of the resources industries. When Kevin Rudd tried to belt the mining industry with Puffy Pants Taxes, the mining industry hit back with an advertising campaign that did much to bring Rudd down and demolish Labor’s landslide 2007 win.
“It wants to use the chains and whips of regulation and tax to control and cannibalise the private sector. Nowhere is this more visible than in energy policy and its interference in the gas industry.
“Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen will say publicly that they’re behind the gas industry. But of course, their actions betray their words. Labor wants gas gone. The government’s not on your side – let’s be very clear about it.”
Labor’s demented climate policies are rippling beyond our shores. Just as Germany’s crazed “energiewende” made European so dangerously dependent on Russian gas, Labor’s gas policies will hit our allies every bit as hard as Australian families and businesses struggling to deal with soaring energy bills.
With major trading partners Japan and South Korea raising concerns about Labor’s crackdown on the oil and gas sector, APPEA is preparing a national advertising blitz pushing back against the government’s market and regulatory interventions.
Mr Dutton attacked Labor’s gas price caps, reduced funding for gas exploration and projects, additional support for activists waging lawfare, mandatory code of conduct, higher taxes on gas companies, radical industrial relations laws and the safeguard mechanism imposing climate targets on heavy industry.
He warned that Labor policies are pushing up prices and businesses will have no choice but to pass costs on to consumers or “pack up shop and move offshore where it’s cheaper to operate”.
Invoking the spirit of Reagan is a potent rallying-call for conservative voters who’ve abandoned the Liberals in droves.
Mr Dutton explained how Reagan managed the oil crisis in 1981 by decontrolling the price of domestic oil and stopped the government from “putting ceilings on its pricing and production”.
“He did these things despite all the scare tactics and dire warnings,” Mr Dutton said.
“Five years later, Reagan spoke about the success of these policies. He let ‘freedom solve the problem through the magic of the marketplace’.”
The Australian
On top of that, Dutton is finally giving a voice in Canberra to what more and more Australians have been daring to say: it’s long past time for Australia to develop a nuclear power industry.
The demented screeching of the green-left that will result will only make Dutton look better by comparison in the eyes of middle Australia.
Do we finally have a conservative opposition who remembers what it takes to win? Well, let’s wait and see: after all, it was Scott Morrison who brandished a lump of coal in Parliament as Treasurer, and we all know how he turned out as leader.
