Politicians 'from Donald Trump down' who insult Greta Thunberg are 'absolutely ridiculous', says Malcolm Turnbull

Politicians "from Donald Trump down" who insulted teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg made themselves "absolutely ridiculous", says former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, while also calling politicians who cannot admit their mistakes "pathetic".

Malcolm Turnbull and his daughter Daisy Turnbull Brown with students Alice
Morgan, Ethan Cheung and Eloise Aiken at Sydney University on Friday.

"There is nothing more ridiculous than middle-aged or adult people, politicians in particular, mocking or deriding teenagers for expressing political opinion," Mr Turnbull said on Friday.

"The pile-on onto Greta Thunberg was surely one of the most ridiculous, absurd exercises. It made all those know-it-alls in the media and politicians, from Donald Trump down, attacking her, look absolutely ridiculous and I hope they all had enough self-awareness to realise."

Mr Turnbull was speaking at the University of Sydney, at the Side by Side conference on social inequality run by Sydney’s Wayside Chapel with which the Turnbulls have a long association.

Read the story from The Age by Jacqueline Maley - “Politicians 'from Donald Trump down' who insult Greta Thunberg are 'absolutely ridiculous', says Malcolm Turnbull.”

Canberra vows EV charger regulation to avoid rail industry's mistakes

A lack of electric vehicle charging standards, which could leave drivers powerless once they leave home, has pushed the Coalition and Labor to vow to regulate the industry and avoid the mistakes of the rail industry's different gauges.

A lack of Australian and global standards for EV chargers
could slow the uptake of electric vehicles in Australia.

There are currently no Australian electric vehicle (EV) charging plug standards, which could disadvantage EV drivers who may be unable to connect to public chargers. This could leave them with fewer options to power their cars around the country.

Read the story from The Age by Cole Latimer - “Canberra vows EV charger regulation to avoid rail industry's mistakes.”

Australia can avoid Germany's renewable energy mistakes

Australia's increasing focus on demand response and energy efficiency is setting the country up to bypass the mistakes made by the world leader in renewables, says a German energy expert.

Australia can avoid German's renewable energy mistakes.

"Australia can learn from Germany's mistakes of the last few years," the deputy chairman of the German Business Initiative for Energy Efficiency, the nation's peak energy efficiency body, Christoph von Spesshardt said.

"I can see similarities between the situation in Australia now and Germany 10 years ago," he told Fairfax Media.

Read Cole Latimer’s story from The Sydney Morning Herald - “Australia can avoid Germany's renewable energy mistakes.”

Hard facts unmask the fiction behind Coalition's 'coal comeback’

Watching politics builds a high tolerance for hypocrisy and humbug, but even I am aghast at the Coalition’s antics this week – fondling a lump of coal in parliament while accusing the opposition of an “ideological approach to energy” and negligence in policy planning.

Seriously. There’s a long list of blame and shame for Australia’s threadbare climate and energy policy, and the failure to plan for an energy market crisis that experts have warned about for years. But Malcolm Turnbull’s Coalition takes out first place.

Arguably all sides of politics have made mistakes or miscalculations to get us to this point of omni-failure – high prices, blackouts and an inability to reduce electricity sector emissions – and yes, ideology has played a part: mostly the climate-change denying, renewables-are-a-socialist-plot ideology espoused by sections of the Liberal and National parties that once upon a time, a long time ago, Turnbull also railed against.

Read Lenore Taylor’s story on The Guardian - “Hard facts unmask the fiction behind Coalition's 'coal comeback’.”