Download the full report: Delivering a High Energy Australia
A practical blueprint for restoring affordability, rebuilding industry, and renewing environmental stewardship
Australia’s net zero strategy is failing. It is making energy more expensive, the economy less productive, and it is doing visible harm to our natural environment and farmland. This report argues that Australia should focus on delivering a High Energy Australia and restore affordability, strengthen sovereignty, and renew the covenant between people and land.
Key Findings: Net Zero Is Failing Australians
Australia’s current energy and climate policies are failing.
They are driving up costs, damaging industry, degrading our environment, and exposing the nation to strategic risk.
• Energy prices are soaring: Since Australia adopted net zero, household electricity prices have risen by 39%, despite government promises of $275 bill reductions. The default market offer set by the Australian Energy Regulator shows average power bills up $576–$806 per household.
• Industry is in retreat: Australia has lost over 7,000 direct jobs in heavy industry since 2020, with over 73,000 jobs at risk and dependent on government subsidies to survive. Major employers such as Qenos, Incitec Pivot, and BHP Nickel West have closed or entered care and maintenance.
• Fiscal exposure is ballooning: Between the Capacity Investment Scheme, Rewiring the Nation, hydrogen subsidies, and state-based SuperGrid programs, the combined public exposure to net-zero-aligned spending exceeds $120–140 billion.
• Environmental outcomes are perverse: 95% of Australia’s emissions reductions since 2005 have come not from cleaner technology, but from land-use restrictions and changes — limiting farmers’ ability to use their own land. Meanwhile, vast areas of bushland and farmland are being cleared for renewable energy zones, threatening biodiversity and regional livelihoods.
• Australia is acting ahead of the rest of the world. Australia is delivering reductions at nearly twice the pace of comparable economies and four times the pace of global averages.
• Strategic vulnerability is rising. Energy-intensive industries — from refining and fertiliser to defence logistics — face higher costs and policy uncertainty even as regional tensions escalate. Australia now imports almost all refined fuels and key manufacturing inputs.
In short, net zero is not working for Australia. It is raising costs, hollowing out our industrial base, and degrading the environment it claims to protect
The Alternative: A High Energy Australia
This paper proposes a set of guiding principles for a better path forward:
1. Lower energy prices first: Energy policy should prioritise reducing prices for households and businesses rather than chasing arbitrary emissions targets. Net zero should not be a goal of our climate policy because it puts achieving an emissions goal ahead of improving the living standards of Australians.
2. Do our fair share: Australia produces just 1% of the world’s emissions. We should reduce emissions in line with comparable nations, not ahead of them.
3. Share the burden equally: The cost of emissions reduction should be distributed evenly, not concentrated on regional industries or low-income households.
4. Empower local action: Local communities should be able to lead initiatives such as waterway protection, land restoration, soil carbon and carbon capture projects to deliver jobs and stewardship across Australia.
5. Back innovation and support all technologies: A commonsense approach to renewables must be the priority. This means using solar panels where they make economic and practical sense, such as in commercial and industrial precincts and not across our pristine landscapes or prime agricultural land. It also means embracing new technologies, including nuclear energy and advanced coal and gas power stations.
6. Protect our security and prosperity: There can be no compromise on our quality of life, regional jobs and industries and national security and defence.
A New Vision for Environmental Stewardship
The wellbeing and strength of Australia’s natural environment depend on the active care and creativity of those who live and work closest to it.
Regional Australians already embody this ethic. Farmers, fishers, and foresters walk their fencelines, manage weeds and feral species, regenerate soils, and invest in the health of the landscapes that sustain both nature and nation. This lived stewardship, grounded in local knowledge and practical care, is the foundation of true conservation.
A new environmental vision should seek harmony between conservation and national purpose. That balance means:
• Driving economic growth through responsible land and resource management that sustains livelihoods while protecting ecosystems.
• Conserving and recovering native species and restoring ecological health through locally led, science-based action.
• Empowering landholders to manage their land flexibly, rewarding regeneration and innovation rather than punishing use.
• Restoring the damage caused by poorly planned renewable energy projects, ensuring that the drive for decarbonisation does not destroy the landscapes, habitats, and biodiversity it claims to save.
• Responsible reductions in carbon emissions. While net zero is not the right approach, Australia needs a plan based on common sense to lower emissions.
• Expanding access to public lands and waters. Common sense approaches to the use of public lands for recreation, hunting, and fishing will strengthen the human connection to nature that underpins long-term stewardship.
Instead of treating nature as something to be locked away, Australia should embrace an environmentalism that is participatory and recognises that prosperity and conservation go hand in hand.
A Blueprint for Reform
This discussion paper presents a practical pathway for replacing net zero with a national framework grounded in realism, fairness, and confidence. The proposals that follow are elaborated throughout the report and summarised in full at its conclusion.
Core policy directions include:
1. Affordability and Reliability
Reform the National Electricity Rules so AEMO’s primary duty is to deliver the lowest possible prices while maintaining reliability. Replace the Capacity Investment Scheme with a genuinely technology-neutral framework that allows all generation sources – including nuclear, coal, and gas – to compete on a level playing field.
2. A Fair and Realistic Emissions Framework
Repeal the Climate Change Act 2022 and remove “net zero” as Australia’s formal target under the Paris Agreement. Adopt a practical emissions trajectory of 2–9 Mt CO2-e reductions per year, and restore the Emissions Reduction Fund as the central, transparent mechanism for abatement. Remove hidden carbon pricing and compliance costs, including the Safeguard Mechanism, New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, and climate-disclosure rules, that raise prices without delivering measurable environmental gains.
3. Strategic and Industrial Sovereignty
Designate fuel refining, fertiliser, metals, data infrastructure, and defence manufacturing as strategic industries vital to national resilience. Provide these sectors with targeted exemptions and fast-tracked approvals under joint oversight by Industry and the National Security Committee of Cabinet. Establish an Industrial Sovereignty Fund to co-invest in critical value-adding capacity and secure Australian control of essential assets.
4. Defence and National Resilience
Suspend the Defence Net Zero Strategy and redirect resources toward core capabilities, fuel security, and logistics readiness. Defence energy policy should strengthen operational resilience, not impose civilian emissions constraints on military readiness.
5. Stewardship and Environmental Renewal
Replace the Nature Positive agenda with a Stewardship and Renewal Act that empowers landholders and Traditional Owners to lead practical conservation. Upgrade National Parks and recreation infrastructure to improve accessibility, amenity, and environmental protection. Audit and rehabilitate renewable-energy sites, re-establish the National Soils Advocate, expand Indigenous Ranger programs, and launch coordinated feral-animal and carp control initiatives to restore ecological health and regional prosperity.
This paper is intended not as a final word, but as the start of a national conversation.
It invites policymakers, researchers, industry leaders, and regional Australians to provide feedback, challenge assumptions, and propose additional pathways toward a High Energy Australia.
By engaging with these ideas, Australians can help design a framework that puts our people, our regions, and our security first.
