Keith Orchison: "Australians need to really care about it because energy supply is absolutely fundamental to the way we live.  The overseas impression of Australia is it's a very hot country, which is true, except when it's a very cold country which is about 45% of the time on the east and south coast.  Energy, whether it's gas or electricity is absolutely fundamental to our lifestyle, so that's the first reason they should care about it.  The second reason they need to care about it is 70% of all the electricity that's made in eastern Australia goes to manufacturing or commerce.  There are hundreds of thousands of jobs dependent on that energy supply.  The third reason why it's important is that if it isn't affordable, manufacturing in particular which is the biggest single load for electricity, is going to find itself uncompetitive in the international arena.  There's almost a million people directly employed in manufacturing in Australia and rather more than that indirectly employed by the manufacturing sector.  They provide services to manufacturing.  Start kicking the legs out from under manufacturing, and you can do it very easily if you get the energy equations wrong, and Australia as a whole, everybody, has got a problem."

Categories: Economy, Energy Choices, Energy Concerns
Author: Keith Orchison AM