17 June

The only part of the renewables shift the Flat Earthers tend to support is Snowy 2.0. Using the Snowy scheme as a big pumped hydro battery. The problem is, it’s a disaster. A typical example of private sector firms making billions, given fat contracts by populist politicians trying to buy votes (and often donations, from the private sector companies). The private sector promised Malcolm Turnbull they’d build Snowy 2.0 for $2 billion, and it would begin operating in 2021. The cost is now $6 billion, and climbing, and the scheme won’t operate (if finished, which is still not guaranteed) until 2028, at the earliest. Private sector efficiency at work, they’ve pocketed much of the blowout, paid for by you and me. Here’s a quote from economist Mike Casson, who studied the massive railway building projects in Victorian England, by the private sector at the time. Nothing has changed. “There is a conflict between politicians, seeking popularity and prioritising schemes and, because that is what the people want, rather than the rational calm and calculated approach of the civil servants. I think today we see something of the same.”