Australia needs a clean energy target, not Coalition paralysis

"If you're cold, put on a jumper. If you're too hot, play under the hose.”

These have long been stock phrases for cost-conscious parents confronted with a complaining child wanting the heater turned up or the air-conditioning switched on (at least, in the latter case, until water restrictions started to bite). But now, it seems, they have become the de facto national energy policies of a government too paralysed by ideology and infighting to give the country what it needs: a secure road from the power generation of the past to the power generation of the future.

Australians were recently confronted with the startling news that nationwide, our power is among the most expensive in the world, despite our abundance of fossil fuels, long hours of sunshine and windy coastlines. The situation is worst in South Australia, which, while struggling to keep the lights on during summer, has the world's costliest electricity. Given the other states' increasing reliance on creaking relics such as NSW's Liddell power station, however, the rest of us should not be too smug.

Read the Editorial from today’s Melbourne Age - “Australia needs a clean energy target, not Coalition paralysis.”