Adjunct Professor in Sustainability, The University of Western Australia
Productivity matters, but economic reform should be judged by whether it lowers real costs, improves household affordability and delivers lasting benefits – not simply whether it lifts output. Climate resilience and a fair transition belong inside that assessment.
Australia should back Pacific-led electrification with affordable finance, local skills and measurable benefits. But clean-energy partnerships cannot substitute for a credible plan to move away from coal, oil and gas. True friendship means listening to our neighbours, acting on shared responsibilities and matching clean-energy partnerships with a credible transition away from fossil fuels. This is a big opportunity to show a real partnership in the Transition.
Australia has one of the world’s largest pools of retirement savings. Yet the country still struggles to finance the clean energy, storage, transmission and resilient infrastructure needed to reduce exposure to fossil-fuel shocks and climate damage.
The Reserve Bank should use Gross Domestic Regeneration to distinguish imported oil shocks from domestic inflation – and avoid compounding the damage.
The global evidence shows electrification is no longer a distant or marginal pathway. The deployment of solar and batteries now represents the fastest energy shift in human history. This is not simply an emissions story; it is a manufacturing, learning-curve and capital-allocation story in which each deployment builds supply-chain capability and contributes to lower costs.
The first oil crises in 1973 and 1979 set in place some rapid oil policy changes but now the last two crises in the 2000’s are showing that these short-term approaches are no longer relevant. We need a better plan.
