Electoral calculus: The Coalition's Net-Zero Framing

Let's assume that the Coalition's abandonment of the net zero target is rational positioning for electoral success. But note, while this strategy may have short-term electoral benefits, it carries medium-term risks to Coalition unity (as it exposes unresolved regional vs urban tensions), and long-term risks for grid stability.

Labor's announcables vs architecture

Australia's energy transition has been hobbled by three distinct failures: the Liberals' policy whiplash that achieves little, the Nationals' agrarian caution that pines for Eden lost, and Labor's substitution of announceables for architecture - a glossy, frenetic politics that talks to consumers while industry and the underlying system barely features.

Liberal backflip on energy policy

Less consequential than it sounds: Yesterday's Liberal Party announcement is unlikely to deliver a substantially different outcome from the pathway the energy system is already on. Even if the Coalition abandons net-zero entirely and reorients policy to the single objective of cheap, reliable electricity, the physics and economics of the grid do not change. The policy shift slows the transition, but it does not fundamentally redirect it.

The Twenty-One Deadly Sins of Net Zero

The lights haven't gone out, but confidence has. For a decade, Australia's energy transition has stumbled from plan to panic, promising cheaper, cleaner power while delivering neither in full. The problem isn't the destination - net zero - but the map. Somewhere between ideology and inertia, the system lost its logic.

Australia's first truly domestic inflation cycle in decades

Australia may be facing its first truly domestic inflation cycle in decades. Productivity stagnation, rising labour costs and entrenched services inflation have boxed the RBA into a narrow corridor. Inflation will ease only when structural constraints - not just interest rates - are addressed.

Can the Nationals' plan work?

The Nationals' 2025 energy policy rejects net-zero haste for a slower, regionally negotiated transition. While politically coherent, it fails on its own terms: nuclear costs too much, coal can't attract finance, aging infrastructure won't last. The plan addresses cost anxiety without confronting grid physics. It buys time, not stability - and delay only compounds.

The Right’s Wrong-Headed Retreat to Energy Nostalgia

The Nationals’ decision to abandon net zero by 2050 reveals more than a policy shift — it exposes a deep confusion on the Right between nostalgia and realism. Australia’s energy future will be decided not by ideology, but by physics and economics.