“Climate change is affecting us now and has been for a number of years, and to leave it until this late in the day to finally get their act together and we still don’t know what the policy is?” he said, exasperated.
After a months-long, cat-and-mouse game between vocal net zero opponents within the National Party and the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison has formally announced he will commit Australia to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
But after all the bluster, details about how Australia will achieve that are scant.
In a nutshell, Mr Morrison is pledging to spend billions of dollars on “low emissions” technologies, including carbon capture and storage (CCS), soil carbon sequestration, and the production of low emissions steel — all of which are in their infancy.
Hydrogen is another buzz word, but in some instances the government is talking about “clean” as opposed to “green” hydrogen —which means Australia will blend non-renewable gas into its hydrogen fuel mix.
Mr Hoey, who farms at Wonthaggi, two hours southeast of Melbourne, moved there from the Goulburn Valley two years ago in pursuit of better rainfall and cooler temperatures.
Given what he has heard recently from some members of the National Party about their desire to protect jobs in the coal industry, he is starting to question who the party really represents.
“[Perhaps] they’re more concerned about mining votes because they’re obviously not concerned about agricultural votes when ABARES has said that the average farmer has lost $30,000 a year because of climate change,” he said.
