We’re well and truly in election mode.
There’s a blizzard of advertisements full of lies saturating our media.
There’s an urgent need for truth in political advertising legislation, but it’s hardly likely to be proposed by either major party.
Neither will the major parties stop accepting massive donations from dodgy corporations, many of whom depend on destruction of the natural world for their revenue. Talk about a conflict of interest!
The coming election, which looks likely to be months earlier than May next year judging by the frenzy of activity on social media, may indeed be about Australia’s energy future, as declared by Anthony Albanese.
On the face of it, Peter Dutton has blundered appallingly.
He has decided where his nuclear reactors will be sited and communities surrounding them won’t have veto rights. Not only that, but the sites will also be acquired compulsorily. He would also need to repeal federal and state legislation prohibiting nuclear energy.
How on earth would he achieve that? It’s very unlikely, even if he does win the next election, that he will control the Senate and may have to try to govern as a minority government in both houses.
Giant cost blowouts, inordinate delays and bribery scandals have plagued attempts to build reactors overseas.
Experts are now calculating the Coalition’s proposal to build seven nuclear reactors could cost us as much as $600 billion and supply a mere 3.7 per cent of Australia’s energy mix by 2050.
Labor MPs have been trivialising this vexed issue by posting three-eyed koala and Blinky fish memes on social media.
The average person already realises the nuclear power proposal is a pipe dream, and just a way to avoid having to approve far more cost-effective renewable energy developments, so vigorously opposed by the National Party.
Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese is posting how all Australians will get a tax cut on July 1, forgetting that people on the pitiful JobSeeker allowance won’t be getting an extra brass razoo. As rents and food costs rise remorselessly, job seekers are still stuck cruelly $200 a week below the poverty line. Maybe the PM thinks they’re hardly likely to vote for Peter Dutton and can afford to ignore their plight?
All this political skirmishing is just a distraction from real day-to-day problems faced by Australians.
Increasingly frugal
People are becoming increasingly frugal in their purchases. How to budget within one’s means is becoming something of an art. Op shopping is more popular than ever.
This frugality feeds on itself and gradually has an effect on the broader economy. As people tighten their belts, retail sales drop and some shops become less viable. The entire economy tightens. This is already becoming noticeable.
The economy is driven by sentiment. When people are feeling secure and well off, they spend money. When they’re insecure, they spend less and the economy suffers. It’s a bit like the sea anemone effect. One touch of a tentacle and they all withdraw.
The economy is also impacted by world events too. The ongoing tragedies of Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, and the threat of an all-out war with Lebanon, are exceedingly traumatising and destabilising, including for Australians half a world away.
It’s not possible to close our minds and hearts to the horror of it all.
Adding to these tragedies, the increasing shock events from a heating world and the ongoing loss of species and destruction of jobs demonstrate starkly that we are not living in normal times. Who wasn’t aghast at the heat-caused deaths of more than a thousand pilgrims at this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia?
Nevertheless, amidst all this doom and gloom there are green shoots starting to emerge.
The European Parliament has adopted a nature restoration regulation that will require member states to restore at least 20 per cent of land and sea areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. Member states will have to restore at least 25,000kms of free-flowing rivers and plant an additional three billion trees.
In London last Saturday, more than 350 environment groups joined under the banner Restore Nature Now, and marched demanding urgent action by the government to tackle the biodiversity crisis.
The outgoing Tory government promised to protect 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030, but only three per cent is protected. They look like losing in a landslide.
Here in Australia, Tanya Plibersek will introduce legislation to create a federal Environment Protection Agency (EPA) with wide-ranging powers and stiff penalties for offenders.
Locally, Linda Sparrow of Bangalow Koalas is on track to plant half a million koala and rainforest trees. The wonderful efforts of her organisation are receiving global attention.
Amidst all this hullabaloo about nuclear versus renewables, ordinary people are going about their daily lives and making an actual difference.
♦ Richard Jones is a former NSW MLC and is now a ceramicist.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
