LYLE Shelton’s Family First party is prepared to fight elections in three states based on opposition to the Labor-Green-Liberal-Teal transition to renewables economic disaster.
Cairns News supports Shelton’s fight but strongly urges him to work with other minor parties in order to maximise the non-mainstream vote and the effective flow of preferences to candidates opposing the net zero scam.
Shelton has cited three energy company CEOs who have exposed the net zero myth, and he says it’s bad news for families.
“While Labor and Liberal keep forcing Australia down the net-zero road, the people running our energy system are now admitting what families have felt for years: this transition is not achievable, not affordable and is smashing the poor the hardest,” says Shelton.
“One CEO warns the truth politicians won’t touch: ‘It’s disproportionately going to hit the poor… an inconvenient truth’.
“Another CEO admits the grid is headed for disaster: ‘We’re not on track to achieve net-zero… Without affordable gas we’re going to come up short’.”
Shelton says what Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson are saying, that Australia’s lower income families are already hanging on by a thread, with soaring electricity bills, soaring costs, and politicians who are too scared to tell the truth.
“Family First isn’t scared,” says Shelton. He’s right but needs to realize that Family First consistently wins only a small percentage of the vote – around 3% in the last Federal election.
Family First is running Deepa Mathew in South Australia, Jane Foreman in Victoria and Shelton himself in NSW, on a platform of stopping unaffordable net-zero mandates, keeping reliable energy in the system and taking the pressure off families.
In this year’s Federal election, the eight Family First Senate candidates achieved close to, or just over 2pc, in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia. On an electorate basis, the candidates received between 4% and 8% or 3300 to 6600 votes.
Shelton’s comments on net zero were based on the results of the Australian Energy Council’s CEO survey released this week. It reveals that even the executives driving the so-called transition know net zero is unachievable and will impose punishing costs on those who can least afford it.
“With state Liberal politicians continuing to back expensive net zero fantasies, the news has made Family First more determined to offer South Australian, Victorian and New South voters candidates who will fight to take the pressure off families,” says Shelton.
A retail CEO (page 19 of the survey) stated the following: “It’s disproportionately going to hit the poor in this country … it rarely gets talked about because it’s an inconvenient truth … if you’ve got 9 megawatts usage at home and no solar system you’re wearing 9 megawatts of all the price increases in networks.”
A generator-retailer aka ‘gentailer’ CEO (page 17) also admitted the transition was not on track: “It’s important because we’re not on track to achieve net-zero and renewable-energy targets, but we are on track with coal closures, so there’s a gap emerging … Without secure, affordable gas supply we’re going to come up short, and that’s going to lead to a lot of instability, insecurity in the market.”
“These warnings confirm what Family First has long argued: the ‘energy transition’ is not free, not feasible and not fair,” says Shelton.
“It is placing enormous pressure on household budgets, small and family businesses, pushing industries offshore and robbing Australians of reliable, affordable power.
“The report confirms that the people paying the highest price are low-income families and those without rooftop solar. Yet these people are subsidising the rich who can afford rooftop solar.
“Despite these explicit warnings from industry leaders, State Liberal politicians remain welded to net zero.
“This is why it is essential that Deepa Mathew (SA), Jane Foreman (VIC) and Lyle Shelton (NSW) are elected at the upcoming state elections.”
Shelton says voters should not be fooled by the Federal Coalition’s policy change. “It’s the states that operate electricity generation and so far state Liberals lack the courage to ditch net zero despite the evidence it does not work.”
While we agree with Shelton that getting three of his candidates elected would be a greatly beneficial achievement, he needs to be realistic and clever with preferencing – especially in Victoria, where a rigged Upper House electoral system allows Labor to shoe-horn in or out by preferences, its favoured minor parties like the Greens and Animal Justice.
Victoria’s Legislative Council is the only jurisdiction in Australia where one-party group voting is allowed. This means lazy, apathetic voters can choose just one party above the line on the ballot paper and their preferences are allocated by that party.
Voters can vote below the line, and list their own preferences, but fewer than 9% did this at the 2018 election. The so-called preference whisperer Glenn Druery got eight of 11 crossbenchers elected to the Upper House that year by preference swapping.
Shelton should get together with other like-minded minor parties and consult someone like Druery or others who have expertise in that particular voting system.
