Originally published by Robert Gottliebsen of The Australian.
20.04.2026
I feel sorry for those aged between their early 20s and mid-30s. They are set to be the victims of bad decisions made by their “rulers” in parliament and government service.
Already, this generation is frustrated with what is happening and is a significant part of the swing to One Nation. But they are set for a much bigger shock. This generation drove the movement that strongly advocated for carbon emissions to be slashed.
By the time we reach the November 2028 election, they will have woken up to the reality that they were duped by their “rulers” who took Australia on a journey called the Integrated System Plan, or ISP, that aimed to cut emissions and power prices while retaining reliability. All politicians must prepare for a fury-based reaction at the 2028 election when the young voters realise that the ISP plan did not work as planned.
At this stage, One Nation looks the winner, but it’s too early to write off Angus Taylor (or Andrew Hastie) and Matt Canavan. It is always possible that the younger ALP politicians will wake up to the fact the old left and right political classifications are a disaster in a time of crisis and will make those necessary changes to bring the government back to reality.
Yesterday I set out the seven flaws in the ISP plan and, while most readers were furious and attacked Energy Minister Chris Bowen, some said I went too far in my remarks recommending supermarkets and other enterprises that need 24-hour power install diesel generators to be safe.
It’s a matter of risk appetite, but today I can reveal that buried in the latest ISP “selling communication” prepared by state and federal energy ministers is a “truth-telling” confession that, in my opinion, justifies my stance.
At the heart of the ISP is a back-up system requiring abundant gas and gas-driven boilers to generate power at times when solar and wind are not generating as expected and battery capacity is insufficient. Tragically, our nation has embarked on a $1 trillion-plus ISP without proper back-up for times when climate-based power is insufficient.
The “truth-telling” found in the statement from the ministers is chilling.
“The gas supply model validation provides some assurance that needed gas market outcomes are possible, but neither confirms nor ensures that these developments are least cost or that they can contribute to a least-cost energy transaction,” the ministerial statement says.
“This means that the gas developments needed to satisfy the ISP assumptions may not be likely or commercially feasible.
“AEMO is assuming gas will be available to service gas-fired power generation (but) that the gas market might not be able to deliver the price or quantity assumed.”
In my words, the ministers are admitting that we have committed countless hundreds of billions of dollars without any idea as to whether the ISP scheme will work in an emergency.
The old Australian slogan of “she’ll be right, mate” governs the ISP strategy.
And to underline the complete lack of proper advanced preparedness for such a huge undertaking, also tucked into the ISP is a hydrogen production plan to help overcome the battery shortfall problem. At this stage, hydrogen is a pipe dream.
In addition, apparently one or two state governments wanted offshore wind incorporated into the model even though it’s clearly far too costly.
Without a proper plan, we are destroying vast areas of agriculture with enormous towers and locking the nation into being a high-cost power society that will not be able to compete in the world.
A few readers held up South Australia, the UK and Denmark as examples of situations where a renewables system has worked. Both SA and the UK have high power prices and SA relies on Victoria and NSW as its “battery”. Denmark relies on the complete fiction of wood burning as a way of cutting emissions.
When the 2028 election comes around, those currently aged between their early 20s and mid-30s are likely to realise they were duped. And their fury will be multiplied because this is the second time in their memory when a group of rulers duped the up-and-coming generation.
Between 2010 and 2015, when the generation now aged between 20 and 35 were very young, we had a group of rulers who went for the quick globalisation dollar and embarked on a high-risk strategy of shutting down most of our oil refineries and industrial base.
We threw out the window the post-World War II idea that, as a remote island nation, we need a degree of self-reliance for defence and for economic independence in times of crisis. But the slogan “she’ll be right, mate” once again dominated our thinking and we abandoned the idea we needed an industrial base. Now in 2026, we realise the quick dollar obtained from relying too much on globalisation leaves Australia exposed.
We will soon realise that to restore part of the old industrialisation base, including replacement refineries, at the same time as embarking on a strategy to make our power system uneconomic and unreliable means we can’t fund rectifying the previous mistakes.
And those in the early 20s and mid-30s generation will not only have to cope with the aftermath of two “she’ll be right, mate” sets of rulers but also the impact of artificial intelligence.
Their resulting fury will spread wide into the total voting community. On the political scene, a lot can happen in two years and my guess is the party that is first to really explain the incredible mess we are creating in our generation of electricity will benefit the most And, remember, we can cut emissions profitably without destroying our country.
