June 2026 update
For those unaware I’m an electrical engineer in the energy sector and have been publicly commenting on energy policy since 2018. You can find my output on podcasts and substack linked below.
To avoid any doubt I am sceptical of current energy policy, I believe net zero emissions is a physical impossibility, and all emissions reduction policies should be scrapped immediately.
My rationale for this position is simple: I’d rather live in a wealthy country with 2.4999 °C of warming than a poor country with 2.4998 °C of warming. The measures required to achieve serious emissions reduction are not sustainable for an advanced economy. I’m happy to discuss any of this, so if you see me don’t be afraid to ask about it. I also don’t hold grudges unless the other party is desperate to maintain that status!
We are living through a particularly dynamic period in domestic and global politics and we should expect this trend to continue. A key component of this period is what I call an awakening. I describe this awakening as a lowering of trust in politicians and bureaucracy across the board which is directly responsible for the rise of so-called populist politics.
My personal journey to low trust was accelerated by COVID (Royal Commission please), reinforced by The Voice, and cemented by subsequent domestic and global events. A short list includes the ongoing US election saga (voter ID please), the UK gang rape inquiry (there’s no nice way to say it), and the outrageous election backflips of the current Australian federal government.
Looking back it’s hard to believe that Brexit and Trump #1 occurred a decade ago in 2016. In 2017 Scott Morrison held up a lump of coal in parliament and in August 2018 displaced Malcolm Turnbull to become Prime Minister, going on to defeat Bill Shorten in the 2019 federal election.
Shortly afterwards Morrison officially signed Australia up to net zero and AUKUS, apologised to Brittany Higgins, changed the national anthem, oversaw the 2020 COVID response with the creation of ‘national cabinet’ and $90 billion in COVID spending.
Losing to Anthony Albanese in 2022, Morrison made way for Peter Dutton, the Liberal Party lost more seats and suffered through more leadership changes, culminating in the present leadership of Angus Taylor.
Now in 2026 we’ve seen the rise of One Nation across the country and the Albanese budget universally detested. Jim Chalmers said he is going to reshape the economy and I believe him. It’s scary. Productivity is down, costs are high, immigration and housing dominate the news headlines.
The reset
The low trust in governments is directly proportional to the rise of populist politicians. The Libs have a tough legacy of poor performance to overcome. Gaining the trust of voters is hard to win and should be cherished. A lot of that trust was lost during the Turnbull reign, and again during Morrison’s second round. Pauline Hanson’s Fire the Liar campaign could well be the end of Albanese and set the scene for a minority government with Pauline Hanson, Angus Taylor and Matt Canavan horse-trading for PM.
In my opinion this is a political reset long overdue. Peter Dutton squandered the window of opportunity he had to do the necessary reset on his own terms post-COVID and now it’s out of all our hands. The times are a-changing and politics will be different from here on.
Donald Horne’s full quote from 1964 – referring to the lucky country – goes like this:
“Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.”
This sentiment remains accurate 60+ years later! We are still the lucky country despite a long period of uninspiring leadership, and I firmly believe that just like the old adage ‘high prices fix high prices’ that poor politics eventually fixes poor politics.
However this can only occur as long as we care about making good arguments, we care about facts, and we care about the freedom to say whatever we like and criticise who and whatever we like.
We must be free to criticise political parties and their leaders. I think a primary role of politicians is to receive criticism, especially from their own constituents and party members. A good politician will use that criticism to fuel their thinking, eventually resulting in better arguments. Making good arguments is how elections are won, ergo the politicians that win elections have the best arguments. That’s how it should be anyway, but here we are.
Lastly the internet is equally wonderful and horrifying, but occasionally some gems appear, such as this political cartoon by American Colin Wright.
The phenomenon so artfully described above draws me to the following conclusion: a conservative voter who wants a roughly centre outcome cannot vote for a fence-sitting middle politician. I believe this is true for several reasons.
1. There is not really a middle on any political topic, just variations of one side or the other
2. Anybody who chooses ‘the middle’ on everything can’t be trusted to hold a firm opinion on anything
Politics is described as the art of the possible, or in other words compromise is the machinery of politics. If you start in the middle a compromise immediately takes you to one side.
An effective politician therefore has to be firmly / clearly on one side of the topic with a clear margin between them and the middle. Likewise a conservative voter cannot afford to vote for the politician claiming to hold the middle ground, because every compromise away from conservative is inevitably towards the radical progressive left.
The radical left understand this concept even if they lack the ability to articulate it. Anybody who has stood alongside the blue-hairs at a polling booth knows they believe their own propaganda with all the might their pitiless hearts can muster. To them fairness and equality just means we are all equally poor. The ultimate outcome of progressive politics is cruelty, the opposite of compassion.
Thoughts on the QLD state government
Doing ok, B+ in this era of D- is something to be celebrated. Since they are doing well I expect a scandal of some sort is brewing and the release will no doubt be timed to coincide with the next election campaign.
Thoughts on Trump
He is necessary. America is a great force for good in the world and Trump takes the big issues head on. I don’t give a toss about his past personal life. His public statements on politics have been extremely consistent for the last 40years. He’s right about immigration, defence, energy, health, education, foreign aid, mainstream media, Taiwan, China, Russia, Iran to name a few topics.
His tariffs are not great for Australia but are a necessary reset required to halt globalisation - in my opinion. We could learn from it. It’s simplistic to say so, but the bumper sticker version is ‘we need America more than we need China’. Unfortunately some of our recent leaders have been publicly rude to Trump, the world leader with the biggest economy, biggest budget, and biggest ego of them all.
I’d rather take Trump to a footy game than many of our recent Prime Ministers.
Wrap up
The rapidly shifting political environment offers risks and opportunities. For us mere voters the system can appear messy and useless. A stabilising force amid the chaos is being able to sit down and chat about it. I often ask people what they think about a topic, then sit back and listen. Sometimes people can be well informed about one topic but totally naïve on another. That’s ok. What we agree on is more interesting than what we disagree about, and honestly most Australians are pretty close to agreeing on most things (except maybe the most stubborn Greens members).
I note that left-wing progressives Drew Hutton (co-founder of the Queensland Greens) and Dave Hughes (ABC-centric comedian) are now outspokenly critical of the current federal Labor government.
I realise all this is very serious, so to finish on a light-hearted note I have attached two images:
1. a relatively benign internet meme somebody sent me of Albo
2. a photo of me at a Greens event (Max Chandler-Mather) before the last federal election, wearing a bright pink hat with COAL in big letters on the front
Light-hearted benign internet meme of Albo, source The Internet
Myself at a Max Chandler-Mather talk in the Griffith FDC prior to the 2025 federal election
Fantastic read. I am conservatively minded and rate Morrison as possibly the worst PM ever, notwithstanding Albo making every effort to take that spot. I have been voting One Nation for the last 20 years, when it became obvious that the major parties were running the same policies.
I’m with you there Ben, well done. I’m a grumpy (so I’m told) older semi retired electrical engineer. My experience supports your comments on the Woke uneducated ALP energy policies. It’s a scary thought to consider, these are the best the ALP can find.