Have you seen Darcy Dunstan’s pre-election bribe? It’s splashed across full-page ads in our local newspapers this week, where Darcy writes:
“I am your Liberal candidate for Corangamite at the federal election. I got into politics because I saw my own mum struggle to pay her energy bills – and she’s not alone. Too many people in our community are doing it tough, and I’m determined to do something about it. I’m a former tradie, an SAS soldier, a small business owner, a proud partner, and a loving father. I’ve served our nation, and now I want to serve our community.”
~ Darcy Dunstan (signature)
And then comes the pitch: “Every litre 25c cheaper” – but only if you vote for him.
This is classic vote bait: a short-term sweetener designed to win headlines and votes. But once the election’s over, it vanishes – leaving the real problems unsolved. It’s a cheap trick.
Here’s why.
The fuel excise – a tax on petrol and diesel – currently sits at around 50.8 cents per litre. The Coalition’s proposal is to halve it to 25.4 cents for just 12 months. Mr Dunstan is simply echoing his party’s broader plan.
The cost? An estimated $6 billion in lost federal revenue.
Economists warn this move could reignite inflation and push interest rates higher – making mortgages and everyday costs even more painful. And once the year is up, unless extended, the excise snaps back, likely causing a spike in fuel prices.
This is a political bait and switch: first Darcy offers cheap petrol to grab your vote, then walks away with no long-term plan.
So what is the Coalition’s long-term strategy for fuel costs? They haven’t told us.
Meanwhile, others are offering real solutions. Community Independent MP Allegra Spender, for instance, has proposed zero-interest loans for energy-efficient home upgrades – helping households reduce their energy bills for good.
Short-term tax cuts might provide immediate relief, but they’re not a plan. If we want to tackle fuel prices and the cost of living sustainably, we need structural change – not vote-chasing gimmicks.
Claiming that halving petrol tax for one year will fix Australia’s energy crisis is treating voters like fools. As they say in Denmark: “It’s like pissing in your pants to stay warm.”
→ You can read more on this theme here:
Torquay’s residents being taken for fools
Dutton complains about rising costs, while pushing policies that make them worse.
The truth about energy prices and the cost of living
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said:
“The energy costs continue to spiral, we know that insurance costs are up, we know that every input cost for business at the moment is going through the roof.”
What he doesn’t tell people is why.
Energy prices have surged primarily due to the high cost of gas and coal. By contrast, renewables are bringing prices down wherever they are widely deployed.
“The cost of power is a very real issue confronting every householder but what our data makes clear is that prices would be even higher without renewable energy. To achieve sustained power price reductions, Australia needs more renewable energy, not less,” Clean Energy Investor Group CEO Richie Merzian told RenewEconomy.
Insurance costs are rising because of climate change primarily caused by the air pollution from burning coal, oil and gas. More extreme floods, bushfires and storms mean more insurance payouts – leading to higher premiums or insurers withdrawing altogether.
More than 75,000 cows have just drowned in floods in Queensland. Why would anyone in their right mind propose lowering the cost of fossil fuels at a time when the climate crisis poses a real threat to our livelihoods and food security?
Dutton complains about rising costs, while pushing policies that make them worse.
And how does he get away with it? In large part, because the media doesn’t hold him to account. Many journalists either don’t know the facts – or they choose deliberately not to challenge his spin.
Dutton’s vow to sabotage climate action
The current Labor government has introduced a New Vehicle Efficiency Standard – a policy expected to prevent 80 million tonnes of carbon pollution over the next decade, while giving Australians greater access to cheaper, cleaner vehicles.
Peter Dutton has vowed to sabotage this legislation if elected.
He plans to strip out the enforcement mechanism – the penalties – that give the policy its power. That’s a win for the petrol car lobby, and a loss for Aussie drivers and businesses.
But it doesn’t stop there.
Dutton has promised to:
- Fast-track approvals for new gas projects without proper environmental assessments
- Extend Woodside’s polluting Burrup Hub project until 2070
- Open more of our oceans to seismic blasting for gas
- Give $1.3 billion in public money to gas corporations
- Pull Australia out of a planned UN Climate Summit bid with Pacific nations, calling it ‘madness’
And instead of investing in proven clean energy solutions, Dutton clings to his nuclear fantasy – a deeply expensive, slow-to-build, high-risk technology that generates toxic waste with no disposal plan, and won’t deliver any power until well after 2040.
Corangamite deserves better
Dutton and Dunstan are pushing policies that accelerate climate breakdown, increase household costs, and hand billions to fossil fuel multinationals – while pretending it’s all “cost of living relief.”
It is not. It’s deception.
Australia is already feeling the pain: more floods, more fires, more storms. We can’t afford to be tricked by shiny slogans and short-term bribes. Not again.
There’s no sugar-coating this: massively expanding gas and fracking across Australia is reckless and short-sighted. It’s exactly the opposite of what responsible leadership looks like.
Corangamite voters deserve long-term solutions, not political gimmicks. If you live in the Corangamite electorate, and you want honesty in politics, vote 1 Kate Lockhart.
Investigation from the ABC showing how a pro-gas campaign directly linked to the Liberal party and to the fossil fuel company Tamboran Resources.
Cheaper cars and cheaper fuel:
False comfort while the world burns
While the Coalition celebrate “cheaper cars and cheaper fuel,” the rest of us are looking at skyrocketing climate risks, increasing disaster recovery bills, insurance bills, and a rapidly closing window to meet our international climate commitments.
Australia signed the Paris Agreement. That means we committed — along with almost every country on Earth — to limit global heating to well below 2°C, ideally 1.5°C. Every tonne of carbon we add to the atmosphere makes that goal harder to reach.
Labor’s so-called “ute tax” is some kind of a punishment. It is a nudge, (though not much more than a nudge), toward responsibility. Here’s why:
It encourages the shift away from high-emission vehicles to cleaner, more efficient alternatives – a shift science tells us is absolutely necessary if we want to avoid catastrophic climate, economic, and health consequences.
Pretending otherwise is not just shortsighted and stupid, it is outright dangerous. It is destorying homes, killing animals and people.
The IPCC and IEA are clear: rich nations like Australia must rapidly phase out fossil fuels, especially in transport. This is not about politics. It’s about physics. And physics doesn’t negotiate.
Cheap petrol and gas-guzzlers may win votes at election time, but they come at a cost far greater than dollars at the bowser. They come at the cost of a liveable future for our own children, our economy, our ecosystems. At its core: the future of life on this planet.
Real leadership means facing hard truths and telling the public the whole story, not offering false comfort while the world burns.
Call out the Climate Criminals and the Coalition candidates when you meet them – they will be all over in your local areas in the next three weeks.
→ RenewEconomy – 16 April 2025:
Chart of the day: Australia tops the world on solar generation per capita
“Australia is generating more solar energy per capita than any other country according to the latest data from Ember. Australia is in 4th place for combined solar and wind generation.”
“The renewable alternatives to fossil fuels – such as solar and wind, backed up by storage – happen to be the lowest-cost form of new energy, and embracing them can ease the pain of rising power bills. Just ask the four million Australian households – one in three – that have solar panels on their roof. Collectively, they’re saving $3 billion a year on electricity bills. Those with household batteries are even better off.”
~ Tim Flannery
Solar: straightforward at low cost
→ RenewEconomy – 1 April 2025:
Chart of the Day: Australia is the global solar pathfinder, because it has to be
“According to the latest IRENA data, Australia is leading the way for per capita solar generation capacity (Watts per person). Australia is in second spot for combined per capita solar and wind generation capacity. Sweden is no. 1”
→ Pearls and Irritations – 4 April 2025:
Electricity prices – government and Coalition policies compared
“It’s not much wonder that the public is confused about electricity pricing when journalists and politicians use the terms “prices” and “bills” interchangeably, and when Opposition spokespeople deliberately lie about the reasons electricity prices are high and make up ridiculous claims about how electricity prices and bills would tumble if they were elected. Peter Dutton’s speech in reply to the budget added to that confusion.”
→ RenewEconomy – 19 March 2025:
Dutton blames renewables for rising power prices, but bills would be much higher without them
“Australia’s shift to wind, solar and battery storage has shielded Australian households and businesses from much higher power bills than they would otherwise be paying, a new report has found, debunking Peter Dutton’s constantly repeated claim that renewables are to blame for rising electricity prices.”
→ RenewEconomy – 3 April 2025:
Coalition’s Ted O’Brien admits gas is a disaster for energy prices
“In Australia, it is gas’ price-setting impacts – identified by shadow energy minister O’Brien – that have been a primary driver of power prices.”
Australians for Natural Gas revealed as a front for Tamboran – a foreign fracking company harming the NT water table and planning emissions equivalent to putting 30 million extra cars on the road. This is astroturfing 101: fake community, real pollution.
→ ABC News – 4 April 2025:
Coalition pollster Freshwater Strategy working with ‘astroturfing’ pro-gas group
“Emails obtained by ABC Investigations show Freshwater Strategy is trying to gather business-sector support for a group called Australians for Natural Gas. Freshwater Strategy has also been hired to run internal polling and focus groups for the Coalition during the election campaign. A political communications expert has described the pro-gas group’s activities as a textbook example of astroturfing – a public relations strategy in which vested interests set up an artificial grassroots organisation to influence public opinion about an industry or issue.”
#ElectionWatch: The Coalition has resorted to claiming that gas is solid, to appease a fuming fossil gas industry. It is not working.
— Renew Economy (@reneweconomy.com.au) April 4, 2025 at 9:01 AM
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→ The Saturday Paper – 5 April 2025:
A coalition of climate vandals
“The Coalition wants to cut support for new transmission projects, wind back the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard and rip out the foundations of Australia’s clean energy transformation. Taking another leaf out of Tony Abbott’s playbook, Dutton’s front bench recently threatened to sack the independent chair of the Climate Change Authority, seemingly for presenting the evidence that their nuclear scheme is a climate dud.”
Fantastic to see a credible and honest independent take on Peter Dutton.
— Gregory Andrews (@LyrebirdDream) April 5, 2025
People in Dickson are showing that democracy is more than showing up at the polling booths on the day.
They’re actively working to elect @EllieSmithQld. https://t.co/OfWWRdFxwq
Rhetoric echoed back
On 4 April 2025, Aaron Smith shared a powerful advert on X that has the Liberal National Party (LNP) in a state of uproar:
The advert, supported by Climate 200, features children reciting the LNP’s own words back to them – a piercing moral mirror that forces the party to confront the real-world consequences of their reprobate policies.
Matt Canavan called it “propaganda” while Bridget McKenzie deemed it “absolutely appalling”.
The LNP’s fury, as Smith points out, stems from their discomfort at hearing their own rhetoric echoed back: “The LNP don’t like their own words repeated back to them, which is why they’re infuriated by this advert,” Aaron wrote in his tweet.
This reaction lays bare the LNP’s moral disengagement, their short-termism, and the devastating legacy they’re crafting for our children, grandchildren, and generations to come.
With 38 community independent candidates and tens of thousands of volunteers fighting for our collective future in this 2025 federal election, it’s clear that the groundswell of concern – especially for our children – is impossible to ignore.
→ Sue Barrett:
“We’re Aware. We’re Worried.” The Children Are Watching—And the LNP Can’t Handle The Truth