I watched the full press conference where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced his new emissions targets for Australia so that you don’t have to.

You’re welcome. But there are some things that you do need to see because you need to see how dishonest so much of what they said actually was and how they contradicted themselves time and again during this press conference and how this entire policy is based on logical fallacies which can be easily debunked. They’re claiming to have achieved things that they have not achieved. And they’re promising that by doing more of what’s not working, then somehow it’s all going to magically start working.

So, in this video, I’m going to do what the misinformation industrial complex, also known as the mainstream media, won’t do. I’m going to break down their lies, deceptions, misdirection, and logical fallacies for all to see. But it’s no good if this video only reaches the usual people who already watch my content. We need this video to reach all Australians and I need you to help me to do that by sharing this with everyone. Now, a quick apology in advance. I had to screen capture this video and the sound is slightly glitchy. I’m sorry about that, but this is too important to let something like that stop me from making this video as quickly as I could. All right, let’s dive in because Albo opens the entire press conference with misinformation right off the bat.

[From video]

“Well, thanks very much for joining us. This morning I convened a meeting of our cabinet and also a full meeting of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party caucus to discuss and consider the Climate Change Authority’s independent expert advice on Australia’s 2035 emissions reduction target.” [End video]

Already we’ve been lied to. Did you catch it? He claimed that the Australian Climate Change Authority was independent.

How can it be? It’s created by the government. It’s members were selected by the government. It is funded by the government or rather by taxpayers, but we didn’t get any say in any of it. And if this climate change authority told the government something that they didn’t want to hear, then they would get quickly sent out of a job. There is nothing independent about any of this. It’s one part of the government telling another part of the government what the government paid the government to tell the government. Calling them independent is a lie, but it’s a blink and you’ll miss it kind of lie that I doubt anyone in the mainstream media is likely to call out. Let’s keep going.

[From video]

“Our government knows that climate change is real and we want to continue to seize the economic opportunity that the energy transition offers our nation. We listen to the science and we act in Australia’s national interest and that is why we’re acting on the advice of the climate change authority.” [End video]

Here at the Topher project, I regularly and repeatedly alert you, my viewers, to the unholy alliance between politicians and their pet bureaucrats and advisers. The bureaucrats and advisers are the swamp in which the politicians swim. And here in this statement from our prime minister, that unholy alliance is on full display. He says he’s listening to the advice of the independent expert panel when what he’s done is just externalize the responsibility. He’s doing exactly what he always wanted to do. But by playing this game of creating an independent body of highly paid, handpicked experts who he knows in advance will tell him exactly what he wants to hear, he’s created a perception that he’s just following the advice, following the science. Where have we heard that before, I wonder? Let’s jump forward in the press conference and get to some of the meat of the policy announcements.

[From video]

“Today I announce that we have accepted their advice that Australia’s 2035 emissions target be 62 to 70%. This is a responsible target backed by the science, backed by a practical plan to get there and built on proven technology.” [End video]

The reductions he’s talking about are reductions from the year 2005, which is the year that Australia uses as its baseline. Now, for reference, Australia is more than 25% down on that baseline already, and our total CO2 emissions have dropped on average about 1.6% per year since 2005. That’s despite having added about 7 million or more people living in Australia.

Now, how have we done that? Well, largely it’s happened because we don’t make anything in Australia anymore. We used to make cars, refine metals, manufacture white goods and clothes and all sorts of things that we need and still use to this day. By the way, our emissions have gone down largely because we now import all of that, which means that actually all we’ve done is export our emissions. The cars are still being made, the metals are still being refined, the white goods are still rolling off the production line, not to mention all the disposable fashion that we wear. All of that production is still happening. It’s just not happening here anymore. Which means that while we import all our goods, we export all our CO2 emissions.

It looks good on paper, but the atmosphere doesn’t care where the CO2 got made, whether the CO2 needed to manufacture a car was emitted in Geelong or in Shenzhen. It’s still going into the same atmosphere. So the truth is that the 25% plus emissions that Australia has reduced from that 2005 baseline, well, we’ve actually just exported that to other countries, meaning we miss out on the industry and the wealth. And it makes no difference to global CO2 levels. And if anything, it probably makes pollution worse. And when I say pollution, I mean real pollution, actual pollution, not CO2. Because the countries that are now making everything for us that we import, well, they tend to be places that care very little about things like real actual pollution. So the idea that destroying Australian industry and our economy and our quality of life is somehow reducing emissions, well, it’s a flat-out lie.

But did you notice right at the end of that statement, he said that this emissions reduction plan was built on proven technology? Hm. Now, that is a statement that should send a shiver down your spine because he’s saying we’ll achieve his target of more reductions by doing more of what we’re already doing. The proven technologies, well, they’re the same ones that have sent our cost of energy sky-high and forced the closure of our industry. The prime minister just announced that he’s going to double down on what’s not working, and you’ll be the one paying for it, both in your power prices and in the destruction of what’s left of our productive capacity.

[From video]

Setting a 2035 target is a compulsory part of Australia’s commitment to the Paris Agreement. [End video]

Well, just stop. I’ve talked about this before, how our politicians love to sign us up to international agreements that create obligations. So now he can protect himself by saying, “Well, it’s an obligation.” See, people worry that our politicians are giving the UN too much power over Australia. And yeah, there is some truth to that. But actually, the game is subtly different. Our politicians are using the UN and international agreements as a smoke screen, as a shield, so that they can’t be criticized when they do exactly what they always wanted to do. Only now they can avoid responsibility and call it an international obligation.

[From video]

“Our plan for the next 10 years builds on the foundations that we have laid over the last three.” [End video]

Uh yeah. You mean you’re going to do more of what you’ve done in the last 3 years? More of what’s given us a per capita recession and the fastest drop in living standards of any OECD countries? Uh 10 more years of that. Oh goody. I suggest you go buy some lube cuz if you think things are bad under Albo now he’s literally promising that he’s going to make it worse.

[From video]

Today we’re announcing $2 billion for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to continue to drive downward pressure on electricity prices. [End video]

Yeah, that downward pressure on electricity prices. That’s why our bills have gone up between $500 and $1,500 a year, depending on where you live and how much you use. And by the way, whatever happened to that $275 bill reduction that we were supposed to get?

[From video]

Today, we’re announcing a new net $5 billion fund in the National Reconstruction Fund. [End video]

Another $5 billion on top of the 2 billion for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

Hm. I thought they said that renewables were cheaper. The cheapest. In fact, why do they need government funding then? Because I thought that the energy companies and in fact all corporations are just profit-driven, money-hungry monsters. And if renewables are actually cheaper, then surely power companies and other companies will gleefully pay for it themselves. Why are taxpayers on the hook?

[From video]

We announced yesterday, of course, $1.1 billion to encourage more production of clean fuels in Australia. [End video]

Ah, another billion. Yeah, cool. At this point, why not?

[From video]

And our people are acting. Uh we’ve seen that with the take-up uh which has exceeded most people’s expectations of batteries in order to store energy that’s being produced on Australian rooftops through solar. [End video]

Ah, yeah. I nearly forgot about that $2.3 billion household battery program. See, the trick here is that they know they have to stop power bills from going up even more. That would be political poison. So, they’re moving as much of this spending as they possibly can away from the power bills themselves and into general spending that comes from our taxes or goes onto the national credit card.

They announce billions in spending here, there, and everywhere, and then have the hide to claim that renewables are the cheapest. Well, sure, after you spend all those billions of dollars, maybe, but even then, not really, once you include batteries and a massive increase in transmission lines that are necessary to make the system work, which again is all funded from general revenue. So, it doesn’t show up on your power bills, but you most definitely have to pay.

[From video]

And since May 2022, we’ve added over 18 gigawatt of renewables, wind and solar, to the grid. [End video]

Yeah, sure. And since May 2022, we’ve also added hundreds, if not over $1,000 a year to household energy bills. Noticing the connection yet? I’ll spare you most of the rest of the conference to save your brain cells, but I do need to highlight something that Energy Minister Chris Bowen said.

[From video]

The climate change authority puts it well in their advice to me. They say, “We have an abundance of solar and wind above the ground and a periodic table of critical minerals below the ground. And that is our key to economic prosperity. We can use these advantages to power hundreds of thousands of jobs and new investment to set us up for a bright economic future.” [End video]

Okay, two things. Firstly, he is at least acknowledging that this so-called clean energy transformation actually requires vast and I mean staggering amounts of mining. The International Energy Agency estimates that globally just for the critical minerals that’s the lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, rare earth elements and copper we will need to mine four times the amount that we already are every year. And that doesn’t account for the iron to make the steel, nor the coking coal needed to turn the iron into steel. Nor does it take into account the concrete for all the wind turbines or the aluminum for all the solar panel frames and the stands and so much more. And by the way, the IEA estimate is probably a low ball. Other independent estimates are way, way higher.

But actually, I want to draw your attention to the second part of his claim that this economic activity will be good for Australia.

Well, on face value, this would look like it’s true. More mines means more jobs in the minds, right? Well, yes, but hold that thought because actually, Minister Bowen has fallen prey to the broken windows fallacy, just with a slight twist. This fallacy was first described by an economist Frederic Bastiat and popularized by Henry Hazlitt whose book Economics in One Lesson is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the world works. And I would suggest that Minister Bowen would do well to get his hands on a copy ASAP.

Basically, the broken windows fallacy focuses on immediate economic activity and not on the long-term value being created. The idea is that even a broken window stimulates the economy because someone has to make a new window, someone has to transport that window, and someone has to install that window. And all of that creates economic activity. And that’s true in the sense that money changes hands. But the end result of a non-broken window, well, that just brings us back to where we started before the window got broken. So overall, no added value has been created.

This clean energy transformation is just the broken windows fallacy. They’re spending all this money creating all of this economic activity with all of this mining, refining, transporting, manufacturing, and installing that is needed. But the end result is that we will have an electricity grid that does exactly what our existing grid does or at least what our existing grid would do if we looked after it properly. So yeah, there is economic activity here that will help to make the GDP numbers look good, but it doesn’t make the country wealthier. And because it’s going to be paid for with debt, the fact is that all of this so-called economic opportunity, all it’s going to do is impoverish our children because they will have to pay off a very expensive new grid which was built to replace the perfectly functional old grid. It’s not even the broken windows fallacy. It’s like installing a new window to replace a non-broken window. All right, that’s enough from Bowen.

There’s two final quotes you need to hear from our treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Now, keep in mind that this is the treasurer who has delivered our per capita recession and our precipitous drop in living standards.

[From video]

“An orderly transition to net zero is a golden economic opportunity for Australia. And the Treasury modeling that we are releasing today makes that abundantly clear. This is a huge economic opportunity for our country and its people and we would be mad not to grasp it.” [End video]

Buckle up. That’s all I can say. If you think things are tough now, I’m sorry, but the brain dead wrecking balls that hold power in this country are just getting started. Now, one last quote from Jim Chalmers, and I’m sorry to do this to you, but this one’s important.

[From video]

“I just wanted to briefly welcome the fact that the unemployment rate has stayed at 4.2%. Uh in really uncertain global conditions, our labor market has been a source of genuine strength. Uh more than 1.1 million jobs created under this Labor government. The lowest average unemployment of any government in the last 50 years.” [End video]

1.1 million jobs sounds impressive until you realize that most of those jobs have been government, public sector, unproductive jobs, jobs for the boys types of jobs.

Which brings us right back to the point I made earlier. Just because money is changing hands doesn’t mean that Australia is being made wealthier. That depends on why the money is changing hands and what we have to show for it.

Our treasurer and our government, they don’t understand economics. And they’re actually proud of the fact that they are creating worthless jobs and going deeper into debt to build a new grid to replace the perfectly functional grid that we already have while they destroy what’s left of our industrial capacity. And rather than reducing CO2 emissions, all they’re doing is exporting CO2 emissions to other countries that make all of the things that we no longer make here. This is not leadership. This is economic suicide.

And I’m sorry to bring it up again, but I have to. People laughed at me when I returned from Venezuela in 2015, and I warned that if we do the stupid things they did, that we’re going to get the stupid consequences that they got. Fast forward 10 years, and here we are. Productivity is falling, standard of living is falling, energy is becoming an unaffordable luxury, and our government is planning to double and triple down on the mistakes of the last 3 years. I normally try and finish my videos with something encouraging, something positive, but there just isn’t anything positive to say that we’re we’re in trouble. And this is entirely self-inflicted.

So, what is the solution? Well, we have to abandon net zero. And I’m optimistic that the Liberal Party might actually do that and soon.

But unfortunately, it seems that well, it looks like things have to get worse before they get better. But worse yet, and more relevant to what I do here at the Topher project, the mainstream media are just cheering this on. They’re parroting the government’s talking points, and I doubt that you’ll see them making many, if any, of the points that I’ve made in this analysis.

My name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project, and sometimes it falls to me to be the bearer of bad news. If you appreciate what I do and you’re in a position to help me to keep doing what I do, then I’d be most grateful if you’d buy me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. Now, if you can’t do that because you’re being squeezed by the cost of living crisis that these idiots have created, then that’s okay. Please just continue to watch and enjoy my content completely for free, of course. But please share it, comment, and do what you can to help my work to reach more people.

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