As an ex-pommie, compulsory voting still feels a bit odd to me.
Skip it and you’ll cop a $20 fine — more than it costs to fill your EV on off-peak electricity.
What’s really strange, though, isn’t the voting. It’s the energy policies on offer — and how little they match what the major parties claim to believe.
The Liberals’ Big Government Strategy
Let’s start with the Liberals.
Their platform has always been about small government, individual responsibility, and supporting small business. But in this campaign? They’re all-in on nuclear, a technology that only exists with massive taxpayer backing, long timelines, and endless red tape. It’s the ultimate big-government, centralised energy fantasy.
They are also opposed to Labor’s proposed battery rebate, even though buying a battery is one of the best things a household can do to take control of their energy bills. Add a solar-charged EV (which the Liberals have vowed to strip tax breaks from) and you’ve got real agency. You’d think that’s exactly the kind of self-sufficiency the Liberals would be shouting about. Instead, they’re waving it off in favour of reactors that might arrive long after most voters are gone.
Labor Promoting Self-Reliance
Labor, meanwhile, has a long tradition of nation-building infrastructure – think Snowy Hydro, the NBN, rail lines, ports, public power stations. Nuclear fits that tradition. It’s high-vis. It’s union-friendly. It’s a generational megaproject. So what’s their stance? Nope. Not touching it.
Instead, Labor’s energy plan is self-reliant, distributed, and household-focused. Batteries, solar and electrification, all supported by an army of clean energy entrepreneurs and small businesspeople. It’s the right approach, but it’s not exactly built for their traditional base.
Whatever colour tie they’re wearing, none of the parties’ energy platforms seem to match what they claim to stand for.
The Greens’ Ideological Purity
Except The Greens.
Still clinging to ideological purity, still allergic to compromise, and still unrepentant for blowing up the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2009. If there’s one party whose energy stance matches their ideology, it’s theirs.
So maybe it’s a good thing the two main parties stopped following ideological lines on energy.
Maybe it’s time for a $20 fine for anyone insisting they should.
For more detail on the major parties’ election promises related to energy, take a look at our home electrification election guide.
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I think an open question is whether Australia will end up with a too-distributed model, with too much of the nation’s power the responsibility of individual householders to maintain. Plus there have been absolutely spot-on critiques of privatisation of electricity generation and distribution in Australia, but the renewables grid will be almost entirely privatised. I wonder if that will cause problems in the future.
Without compulsory voting, only the nutters vote. Exhibit A – the UK and US right now 🙂
Is the US or the UK the result of nutters voting? Or are they the result of people who care about politics, or ‘their’ party, voting? I’d tend to think optional voting reduces the chances of the nutters voting.
In Australia you have people rock up to the voting booth asking electoral staff what electorate they’re in and who they’re supposed to be voting for. Naturally said staff aren’t allowed to provide that sort of help!!! But is it likely such voters will make informed decisions?
When you say the renewables grid will be almost entirely privatised, you mean the generation component as distinct from the actual poles and wires right? Or is all the additional poles and wiring required for renewables, plus battery support, going to be private too?
To be fair, its not like Australian politicians are renowned for actually following their party political policies!
I think it all started when Peter Dutton had a nuclear brain fart. He tried to hide it but the media wanted to know more; e.g What will it be? Where will it go? How much will it cost? So then the Liberals had to quickly come up with answers and justify Duttons random nuclear idea. Now it’s locked in. If the Liberals take government looks like we will almost accidentally go nuclear. Thanks Peter.
There’s plenty of blogs dedicated to politics where people can post their two cents worth.
People who come here want to get updates on the latest in solar. Without the politics. And the readers can go to the political blogs if they feel the need.
Solarquotes blog should stick to solar.
Can one ever be an ex-pommie? I mean it’s not the sort of term I use, but it’s also not the sort of thing you ever cease to be. You can of course get Australian citizenship, and probably cancel your British citizenship, but does that change your ‘pommie’ status? Not as far as I’m aware.
I forgot to vote a few years ago. Fine was $110.
I think I can see where the Liberal Party is coming from. They have a problem. The central plank of their beliefs is a dislike of renewable energy, wind and solar. The problem is that they can’t think of anything else. Coal is undeniably expensive, gas even more so, and nuclear is the only remaining half-way plausible option. So nuclear it is.