this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
37 points (97.4% liked)
Australia
4926 readers
159 users here now
A place to discuss Australia and important Australian issues.
Before you post:
If you're posting anything related to:
- The Environment, post it to Aussie Environment
- Politics, post it to Australian Politics
- World News/Events, post it to World News
- A question to Australians (from outside) post it to Ask an Australian
If you're posting Australian News (not opinion or discussion pieces) post it to Australian News
Rules
This community is run under the rules of aussie.zone. In addition to those rules:
- When posting news articles use the source headline and place your commentary in a separate comment
Banner Photo
Congratulations to @Tau@aussie.zone who had the most upvoted submission to our banner photo competition
Recommended and Related Communities
Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:
- Australian News
- World News (from an Australian Perspective)
- Australian Politics
- Aussie Environment
- Ask an Australian
- AusFinance
- Pictures
- AusLegal
- Aussie Frugal Living
- Cars (Australia)
- Coffee
- Chat
- Aussie Zone Meta
- bapcsalesaustralia
- Food Australia
- Aussie Memes
Plus other communities for sport and major cities.
https://aussie.zone/communities
Moderation
Since Kbin doesn't show Lemmy Moderators, I'll list them here. Also note that Kbin does not distinguish moderator comments.
Additionally, we have our instance admins: @lodion@aussie.zone and @Nath@aussie.zone
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Just build solar cells in the desert. Should be easier than in any other country.
Doesn't even need to be in the desert. Build them on every house and business. Add batteries. Add electric vehicles. Done.
I know it's more complex than that but that's the gist.
Dandrews govt had a whole acheme for neighbourhood battery banks to spread solar excess between those with panels and those without, soak up excess, decentralise the grid and allow neighbourhoods to island
Then covid happened arrtfggh
It's also better to build what we can near the cities since it reduces the need for more transmission lines which are costly and prone to opposition from rural types (unless it happens to go through their farm and they make a killing on it).
I don't think it's fair to blame rural types for lack of infrastructure. Generally they are calling for better infrastructure not less. There are NIMBYs everywhere but there are also pragmatists everywhere.
It's just the nature of the issue. Transmission lines are primarily going through rural areas, so consequently that is where the opposition is centred.
And there's a strong streak of anti-renewable and anti-transmission sentiment in the regions, much of it inflamed by disinformation locally and online.
NIMBYs are a slightly different problem in that it's primarily about protecting property values rather than mostly ideological opposition in the regions. Which attitude is worse is up for debate, but yeah, I'd prefer both groups had less power to oppose needed infrastructure.
The other parts are fixing up our rail networks for long distance freight transport, and general electricification of heavy industry.
Biggest downside is we'd have to go change out all those "without trucks Australia stops" slogans with something new.
"Without rail, Australia will fail"?
Anyway I suspect long haul trucks will win out for the medium term at least. Not because it's the best solution, but because it can be rolled out more quickly. I do hope we pursue rail for the long term good though, and not just for freight but for people moving, particularly as jet fuel takes up a greater proportion of our emissions.
@vividspecter @dgriffith am hoping the same. Problem is a lot of the lines were privatised and now in a state of disrepair especially in WA. Fix them, add a passenger car to every train heading into the country and there you go.
How about new stickers t:
oops, we got it wrong. Australia big. We're not full, I was just being racist.
Or is that a step too far?
It’s always been that simple, problem is like half of conservatives in parliament are actively misinforming the public with their Murdoch assigned opinions of renewable energy being a “”rort””.
My grandparents still believe that line about how solar power is destroying the sun or however it goes.
Not all their opinions are Murdoch assigned, some come straight from Gina
We have options for renewables falling out our arse, that's why they're hitting so hard. We could be a terror to the fossil fuel industry