As an ex-pommie, compulsory voting still feels a bit odd to me.
Skip it and you’ll cop a $20 fine — more than it costs to fill your EV on off-peak electricity.
What’s really strange, though, isn’t the voting. It’s the energy policies on offer — and how little they match what the major parties claim to believe.
The Liberals’ Big Government Strategy
Let’s start with the Liberals.
Their platform has always been about small government, individual responsibility, and supporting small business. But in this campaign? They’ve been all-in on nuclear, a technology that only exists with massive taxpayer backing, long timelines, and endless red tape. It’s the ultimate big-government, centralised energy fantasy.
They are also opposed to Labor’s proposed battery rebate, even though buying a battery is one of the best things a household can do to take control of their energy bills. Add a solar-charged EV (which the Liberals have vowed to strip tax breaks from) and you’ve got real agency. You’d think that’s exactly the kind of self-sufficiency the Liberals would be shouting about. Instead, they’re waving it off in favour of reactors that might arrive long after most voters are gone.
Labor Promoting Self-Reliance
Labor, meanwhile, has a long tradition of nation-building infrastructure – think Snowy Hydro, the NBN, rail lines, ports, public power stations. Nuclear fits that tradition. It’s high-vis. It’s union-friendly. It’s a generational megaproject. So what’s their stance? Nope. Not touching it.
Instead, Labor’s energy plan is self-reliant, distributed, and household-focused. Batteries, solar and electrification, all supported by an army of clean energy entrepreneurs and small businesspeople. It’s the right approach, but it’s not exactly built for their traditional base.
Whatever colour tie they’re wearing, none of the parties’ energy platforms seem to match what they claim to stand for.
The Greens’ Ideological Purity
Except The Greens.
Still clinging to ideological purity, still allergic to compromise, and still unrepentant for blowing up the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2009. If there’s one party whose energy stance matches their ideology, it’s theirs.
So maybe it’s a good thing the two main parties stopped following ideological lines on energy.
Maybe it’s time for a $20 fine for anyone insisting they should.
