Australia needs a Paris Plebiscite 
by Viv Forbes

The Clexit Coalition calls on the Australian Government to conduct a plebiscite on whether Australia should withdraw from the Paris Climate Treaty.

The Clexit (ClimateExit) Coalition, comprising over 170 representatives from 25 countries, was launched in London last week. It aims to prevent ratification or local enforcement of the UN Paris climate treaty.


Australia is vulnerable to the destructive energy policies being promoted in the UN’s war on carbon fuels.

Australia is a huge continent in a far corner of the world, suffering from what that great historian Geoffrey Blainey called ‘The Tyranny of Distance’.


Since the days of the gold rush and the wool boom, we have always relied on production, transport, processing and export from our remote mines and farms to distant markets – gold and silver, wool and wheat, lead and zinc, butter and cheese, copper and aluminium, beef and lamb, iron ore and coking coal, timber and fruit, natural gas and thermal coal, cement and steel. These widely scattered industries and the factories and refineries dependent on them rely on two things – efficient transport and reliable low-cost electricity.


Two insane energy policies threaten them – “carbon free transport” and “wind/solar power”.


How do green dreamers plan to power the bulk carriers, tankers, container ships, railways, road trains, trucks, tractors, draglines, dozers and pumps on wind/solar power?
“Carbon-free transport” would be the economic equivalent of returning to the costly and unreliable days of windmills, bullock teams, draught horses, sulkies and sailing ships.


The same applies to “renewable energy” which is unreliable, intermittent and costly.

Without nuclear or new hydro-power, there is Buckley’s chance that carbon-free energy can supply low-cost reliable electricity for Australian mines, farms, trains, planes, cities, refineries and heavy industry.


Before subjecting Australia to these disastrous energy policies, Australians should be given a choice. If we deserve a Plebiscite on gay marriage, which affects a minority of people, we certainly need a Paris Plebiscite before the futile war on carbon fuels destroys our backbone industries and their jobs. 


With hostility to the Paris Treaty in Poland, doubts in France Britain and America, pretend participation by China and India, and real opposition in the new parliament, Australia should pause.


Let’s see evidence, a real debate, and a vote.