The two light-weights of Australian politics, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull are engaged in a slanging match over nothing much of importance: Bill Shorten having lunch with rich people and Malcolm Turnbull’s house in Sydney amongst other things.
This unedifying spectacle has been sharpened by the failure of power supply in South Australia which is important but not as important as these two scoring a few cheap shots of the other’s expense.
The Australian Energy Market Operator has already issued a notice warning of tightening supply/demand in NSW over the coming days, and this could see load shedding happen there as well, with temperatures expected to rise to 40 degrees over the next few days.
The government has blamed this failure, somewhat illogically, on the Opposition’s clean energy policies. The Government’s most potent weapon in the attack on clean energy has been Scott Morrison running around the House of Representatives brandishing a lump of coal, much to the surprise of Barnaby Joyce who has apparently never seen one before.
“This is a piece of coal,” said Scott Morrison. Surely a high point of parliamentary debate.
It is surprising that Malcolm still appears slightly puzzled about the rise of Pauline Hanson.
