If you’re one of the little people and you want to build a shed or some decking or even, heaven forbid, a garage on your own property,

then you’ll be waiting for maybe 6 months, maybe more, for a little piece of paper from the government saying that you have their permission to spend your money making improvements to your property. This arduous, slow, and expensive planning approvals process is necessary, we are told, in order to ensure that land owners don’t do something crazy like build a shed or a deck or a garage without daddy government first checking to make sure that they’re not going to cause some terrible environmental calamity such as, I don’t know, tooth decay and termites or some such thing.

But if you’re the government, you don’t have to obey any of these silly little rules that apply to these silly little people. And well, Senator Murray Watt, a village idiot from Queensland who somehow became Australia’s Minister for the Environment, was pretty chuffed with himself when he made this announcement on social media.

[From video]

Great news. We’ve just approved a new solar farm in Queensland, and it only took 17 days to get this approval. This new solar farm, which will be just outside Gimpy in Queensland, will provide enough power to supply 40,000 homes with their power needs. Of course, it’s really good for the environment as well because it’s going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 208,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year. And that’s the equivalent of taking 75,000 cars off the road every single year. And did I mention it only took 17 days to get that approval done?

The reason we’re able to do that is it’s going on predominantly cleared agricultural land. And importantly, it’s going to be able to be used for agricultural purposes as well, including sheep grazing. So, this is a win-win uh for our farmers and for renewable power and all of those who want to use renewable power in their home. All up, since 2022, the Albanese government has approved around 90 new renewable energy projects. And that shows that we’re serious about making sure that Australia becomes that renewable energy superpower that we all want to see it become, while of course bringing down emissions and creating jobs and reducing power prices. We’re getting on with the job with even more renewable energy coming your way soon. [End video]

Oh yes, that renewable energy superpower that we all want to see Australia become. Apparently, so I’m told. Yeah, there is a lot going on in this video, but first, my name is Topher Field. This is the Topher Project, and I help busy people like you to make sense of the nonsense that surrounds us. I am 100% viewer supported, so please check out my books, Good People Break Bad Laws, all about civil disobedience in the modern age. And Good Christians Break Bad Laws, all about the theology of civil disobedience.

Plus, there’s my multi-award-winning DVD, Battleground Melbourne, and a range of t-shirt and hoodie designs, including the classic Good People Break Bad Laws, the new Good People Break Bad Laws, The Truth Will Set You Free 832 design. Then there’s Nyet Zero, which is my way of saying no to net zero. There’s my History design with history being quoted as being as saying, “Don’t make me repeat myself.” Then there’s my personal favorite, Too Much 1984, Not Enough 1776. If you know, you know. And if you already have all of that and you’d still like to support my work and help me to keep the Topher Project going, then you can buy me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net.

Okay, let’s get back to this absolutely cringe video from Senator Murray Watts, the Australian Environment Minister, and break it down bit by bit, shall we?

[From video]

Great news. We’ve just approved a new solar farm in Queensland, and it only took 17 days to get this approval. [End video]

I absolutely love that he starts with the phrase great news. It takes me straight back to my Futurama binging days. Great news everybody. And as was always the case with the professor when he said great news everybody. Uh it’s not great news at all. 17 days to get an approval for an a new grid scale solar farm. What this means in practice is that actually it was already approved. The approval process was just a formality, a box ticking exercise. A farce designed to make it look like the government had to follow the same rules as what they apply to us, the little people. Well, actually, they were just doing whatever the hell they wanted.

What Senator Watts is revealing here is his one rule for thee and another for me mentality. Do you think that the environment minister would celebrate a 17-day approval for anything else?

[From video]

This new solar farm, which will be just outside Gimpy in Queensland, will provide enough power to supply 40,000 homes with their power needs. [End video]

Now, he’s talking about the Hookey Creek Solar and Storage Project, which has 100 megawatts of solar panels and battery storage that can supply up to 8 hours at 200 megawatt, which is 1.6 gigawatt hours of energy, assuming that it’s all fully charged to begin with. The environment minister says that this solar farm can supply 40,000 homes with their energy needs. Let’s do the math.

A 100 megawatt solar farm with a capacity factor of 30% which is a little bit generous but probably not by much will generate on average (and we’re going to come back to this averages problem in a minute) 720 megawatt hours per day. Now a typical home in Queensland uses between 16 to 20 kilowatt hours a day. Crunch the numbers and yes that adds up to the energy requirements of 40,000 homes typical homes on a typical day being 720 megawatt hours all good. And because this project is both solar power and storage then it is actually true that on an average Queensland day this facility will in fact supply enough energy for 40,000 homes both day and night as long as it’s an average day and it’s followed by another average day.

The trouble is that over the course of the year, there are very few average days.

In summer, when the days are longer, yeah, you might be able to power 50,000 homes. But then again, that’s also the rainy season. So, at times, the clouds in Queensland can be so thick that it feels like the sun is setting in the middle of the day. And when that happens, you better hope that those story batteries were full because you are going to be draining them fast. And within just a few days of less than ideal weather, back-to-back below average days, you’re going to be looking at blackouts.

This Hookey Creek setup is pretty much the Rolls-Royce of grid scale solar. It’s basically the best that we can do, and it’s phenomenally expensive, by the way, for what it provides. It is well equipped with a large and powerful storage backup to help to balance the supply with the demands of the grid. And yet this Rolls-Royce is still going to need to be backed up by fossil fuels, gas, coal, and if South Australia is anything to go by, probably some diesel as well, just to keep the grid stable year round. Because it’s very easy to say that this solar plant will meet the energy needs of 40,000 homes on average. It’s another thing altogether to make that happen year round in practice. All right, let’s keep watching.

[From video]

Of course, it’s really good for the environment as well because it’s going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 208,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year. And that’s the equivalent of taking 75,000 cars off the road every single year. [End video]

Yep. Reducing atmospheric plant food is a good thing according to our environment minister. And I can’t help but notice he’s not mentioned anything about the amount of mining, refining, transporting, and manufacturing that has to go into this 100 megawatt of solar panels and this 1.6 gigawatt hours of batteries. It’s almost as if his obsession with CO2 has made him blind to any other environmental vandalism.

[From video] And did I mention it only took 17 days to get that approval done? [End video]

Uh, yes. Thank you, Senator. What? You did actually mention that it took 17 days. And did I mention that that’s not a good thing? Well, I mean, a 17-day approval is a wonderful thing if that’s what everyone got. The simplest definition of tyranny is this. It’s any place where the government does not have to obey the rules that the government makes for everyone else. Any place where the government makes the rules but doesn’t have to obey them is by definition, to whatever seemingly small degree perhaps, a form of tyranny. And that is what Senator Watts is quite literally boasting about in this video. But he goes on to explain why he was able to get that approval in just 17 days.

[From video]

The reason we’re able to do that is it’s going on predominantly cleared agricultural land. And importantly, it’s going to be able to be used for agricultural purposes as well, including sheep grazing. So, this is a win-win uh for our farmers and for renewable power and all of those who want to use renewable power in their home. [End video]

Wow. Did you catch that? As long as you are building on prime agricultural land and you don’t get in the way of the sheep, you can get a 17-day approval. So, if I were to say, I don’t know, build a conference center out on some prime farmland, but I put it up on stilts so that the sheep can still get underneath it, would that get a 17-day approval? What if I did a huge subdivision filled with houses up on stilts? Well, the sheep won’t mind, I promise. What if I put my garden shed up on stilts instead of on a concrete pad? Will that get me a response from my local council in less than 6 months? The hypocrisy of this from the environment minister, well, it’s blatant and honestly, he doesn’t seem to care.

[From video]

All up since 2022, the Albanese government has approved around 90 new renewable energy projects and that shows that we’re serious about making sure that Australia becomes that renewable energy superpower that we all want to see it become, while of course bringing down emissions and creating jobs and reducing power prices. We’re getting on with the job with even more renewable energy coming your way soon. [End video]

Oh yeah. Around 90 new renewable energy projects that are bringing down power prices, which is why my power bills have never been higher. It’s funny how we bought those Energy Saver light bulbs. We bought the household appliances with the Energy Efficiency Star ratings. We’ve watched our taxpayer dollars get spent on apparently around 90 new renewables projects in just the last couple of years with many more before that, of course. All with the promise that our power prices are going to go down. Because let’s not forget, we’ve been told over and over again that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy. And yet somehow my bills keep getting higher even though my usage is lower than ever.

This from the environment minister. This is what’s called gas lighting.

Ironically, we have the term gas lighting because it’s named after a movie that featured gas powered lights. And that’s exactly what we’re going to have in our winter when the sun don’t shine and the batteries run out. Gas, coal, and diesel powered lights. And power bills that will set your heart racing. Because not only do we have to pay for the backup, the gas, the coal, and the diesel that’s going to give us electricity come hell or high water in the middle of winter, we also have to continue paying for all of the renewables projects that aren’t giving you power.

But worst of all, in my opinion, is this 17-day approval nonsense. It is an insult to our intelligence to claim that a full and proper approvals process was done in 17 days when for you and I, it takes 3 months for them just to look at an application for a proposal to form a committee to design the scope for a feasibility study into the commissioning of a white paper to provide the basis for a public inquiry to make recommendations for the consideration of the planning department to provide oversight of a working group that will propose a framework for the environmental impact survey into the inclusion of a rocking horse in your child’s cubby house.

Senator Murray Watts is absolutely taking the piss with this 17-day approval of a solar farm. But who can blame him? Because voters keep drinking his piss and calling it fine wine. This kind of nonsense will not stop for as long as the Australian public keep accepting it. And this is why I keep saying that the limit of government power is defined by the limit of our obedience.

Throughout history, the only thing that has successfully put a limit on government power is when the people say enough and stop complying.

The limit of our obedience. This keeps getting worse until we say enough. Now, I don’t know what that needs to look like, but I know that we need to figure it out and fast. Because whether you like it or not, this 17-day approval demonstrates that we live, at least to some small degree, in a modern-day tyranny where the government does not have to live by the rules that it forces upon the rest of us.

And I’m not okay with that. Not for me and not for my kids. And so, we need to have a serious discussion about what we’re going to do about it. Which is why I wrote my first book, Good People Break Bad Laws, drawing on history, political philosophy, and my own personal experiences in locked down Melbourne, Australia. I discuss the limits of our obedience and the topic of civil disobedience in the modern age.

In this book, you’ll find that, plus my second book, Good Christians Break Bad Laws, plus my multi-award-winning DVD, Battleground Melbourne. All my t-shirts and hoodies at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. And you can support me and help me to keep the Topher project going by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net.

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And as always, think free.