Labor’s climate insanity

UNTIL Labor went mad this week, I was like many conservatives. I thought the Liberals needed to lose the election and find their mongrel.

They’ve been too Labor-lite to fight for smaller government, for free speech and against the global warming religion.

I thought time in the naughty room would clean out the worst of the Leftists and go-with-the-flow opportunists who have destroyed this conservative party’s soul.

But then Labor on Monday released its global warming policy, and the Morrison government on Tuesday revealed its Budget.

That’s it. It’s now a big “no” to Labor.

True, a defeat in the May election may really whip the Liberals into shape, but can we really afford what Labor would meanwhile unleash?

It’s not just that Labor plans to hit this wobbly economy with an extra $200 billion tax grab over the next 10 years, aimed particularly at investors using capital gains concessions, negative gearing and franking credits.

Nor is it that Labor is refusing to back the Government’s planned tax cuts for medium and large businesses, underlining how hostile it is to the very things that create wealth.

To all that add the final

insanity – Labor’s global warming policy. How can we elect a party that’s totally off its head? Before I explain, bear in mind two facts.

First, Labor’s climate spokesman, Mark Butler, is hallucinating when he claims we face a “climate emergency”.

In fact, what slight warming we’ve seen over the past 40 years – some of it natural – has given us record grain crops, more rain and fewer cyclones.

Second, Labor is hallucinating when it boasts that its policy will help us to “avoid the worst impacts from climate change”.

In fact, Chief Scientist Alan Finkel has confirmed that Australia’s emissions are so small we could scrap every car, plane, factory and burping cow and the effect on the climate would be “virtually nothing”.

So whatever Labor promises is a fake fix to a fake crisis. Yet Labor’s fake fix would ruin the economy.

It’s policy promises to cut our global warming gases by 45 per cent by 2030. That means not just cutting emissions from coal-fired power stations, many of which would then close.

It also means cutting emissions from the rest of the economy. Labor says farmers, for instance, won’t be able to clear their land like they used to, and motorists must buy lots more electric cars.

Half of the new cars sold by 2030 must be electric, which means forcing Australians to buy not the 2200 electric cars a year that they buy now, but 575,000.

This shows just how Labor lets its global warming craze blind it to practical considerations, because there are good reasons why Australians buy so few electric cars. They cost more, for a start. They take at least 30 minutes to recharge, even when using fast chargers. They don’t last as long, or not without changing their expensive batteries.

Crucially, our vast distances mean we’d also need to build a network of recharging stations at a cost of billions of dollars.

Yet Labor will fix all this in 11 years?

And what of the ultimate insanity? Here’s Labor making us use more electricity at the same time that it’s giving us less electricity. You know none of this makes sense, but global warming is a religion and reason plays no part.

That’s why Labor leader Bill Shorten refuses to say how much his global warming policy would cost the economy, business or you. (Economist Brian Fisher of BA Economics estimates workers will earn $9000 a year less than they’d otherwise expect by 2030.)

Nor will Shorten state what difference he’d actually make to the world’s temperature.

Is this not a definition of political insanity, disrupting our economy without telling you either the cost or the benefit?

Tuesday’s Budget showed just how little we can afford this craziness. Yes, the Morrison government promises our first surplus in 12 years next financial year – but only a small one, $7.1 billion, rising to just $9.2 billion three years later.

That’s nothing, when net debt is at $370 billion. One small downturn in the world economy will blow them away.

And consider why we finally have these surpluses. It’s not just because sky-high immigration is sucking in more taxpayers. It’s also because our huge exports of coal and iron ore are getting prices higher than expected.

And what does Labor in its global warming frenzy want less of? Yes, coal.

What is this madness? Watch Andrew Bolt on The Bolt Report LIVE 7pm week nights