Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes blasted Liberal MP Nicolle Flint over her climate blaming on last night’s Q&A on ABC TV.
The South Australian MP blamed typical Australian weather for SA’s 2016 statewide blackout. Renewable energy sources alone can’t generate enough reliable and affordable power to avoid this situation, Flint told the audience.
However, the raspy-voiced Cold Chisel frontman reminded her it was extreme weather that caused the outage in the first place. “It’s getting worse,” due to climate change, he added as the audience responded with cheers.
Climate blaming excuse for real climate action
Nicolle Flint was already under siege for her comments about emission levels. She also said Australia was on track to meet its Paris emission reduction targets “at a canter”, echoing Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Yet data shows Australian emissions have continued to rise for the last five years. The Climate Council, backed by 28 climate experts, says Australia will not meet its 2030 targets under present national policy.
Flint said the re-elected Coalition is “technology agnostic” in terms of energy generation. She said fossil fuels like coal are needed because solar power was not reliable – implying the 2016 blackout was an example.
However, Barnes was quick to point out the flawed logic, reminding her the blackout was actually caused by tornadoes toppling transmission towers.
“I don’t understand your argument at all,” Barnes said.
Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon also called Flint out for climate blaming. “When it isn’t the weather’s fault, it’s the Labor Party’s fault – always,” he quipped.
2016 blackout among ‘scariest experiences’: Nicolle Flint
Flint, South Australian member for Boothby called the 2016 statewide blackouts “one of the scariest experiences of my life”. This was the impact of losing “reliability of power supply”.
But Barnes said the Federal Government has to stop blaming weather and acknowledge the role of devastating climate change.
South Australian residents want clean energy
March polling by The Australia Institute (TAI) shows nearly 70 per cent of South Australian voters want their state to adopt 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
The state is an Australian renewables leader. A 2018 Climate Council report showed SA has the largest amount of installed large-scale wind and solar power capacity in the country.
SA also has the largest lithium-ion battery in the world. The Tesla Powerpack battery at the Hornsdale Power Reserve went online following the 2016 blackouts. It saved the SA Government $33 million through its rapid stabilisation of the grid, which made other measures unnecessary.
