Fix our energy mess

THE general public needs relief from the bill shock they are copping every time they open their power bills.

Some of our neediest and most vulnerable citizens, many of them old, are shivering through winter rather than turning on the heater.

We all know the relationship between the Federal Government and the State Government is toxic.

It has hit rock bottom over a series of spats ranging from African crime to pledges on a City Deal for Geelong.

But now is not the time for cheap political pointscoring.

Daniel Andrews and Malcolm Turnbull will each face their own elections over the coming 12 months.

They are from different parties but, being on different levels of government, they are not directly against each other.

And so it would not be too hard for the opportunistic pointscoring between the federal Coalition and Victorian Labor to be put to one side in the interests of actual cohesive leadership.

Environmental issues are important and they are at the forefront of our national conversation. But fringe deepGreen views as espoused by that party are not held by the overwhelming majority.

We need market transparency to guard against corporate gouging. We need to ensure that we have a reliable supply of energy. We need to ensure it is affordable for vulnerable individuals, and for businesses as well as benevolent service providers such as hospitals. And we need to ensure that while these energy needs are being met that energy is created, captured and delivered in as environmentally friendly a way as practicable.

But we need those needs met in that order. What we should not stand for is small and medium-size businesses — the economy’s lifeblood — being driven to the wall nor vulnerable people shivering through winter.

We should especially not stand for that if it is driven by the utopian fantasies of a group that has never had the responsibility of running an economy or a country.