Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The World Economic Forum warned Australians, 'You will own nothing and be happy.' What they didn't say was that they'd use your smart meter to turn off your air conditioning and cut your lights off. It's just the latest conspiracy theory come true.

For years, One Nation has been warning of the dystopian energy future Australia faces under this Labor-Green-Teals-Pocock government. That future is here already. Last week we learnt that Energex, Queensland's state owned power network, remotely throttled air conditioners in almost 170,000 homes and businesses six times in the past two months. This was done to shore up an increasingly fragile energy grid that's increasingly on the brink of collapse. It was done using the so-called PeakSmart program—it sounds wonderful—where households are convinced to accept state controlled smart meters in air conditioners in exchange for a small $400 rebate. Many are not aware they're handing over complete control of their electricity use to Energex. Many are not even aware they can say no to a smart meter. You don't have to put it in.

What's appalling is the very idea that energy rationing is imposed on a state with the world's best coal reserves and abundant natural gas reserves. We have the energy; we can't use it. You'd hope we wouldn't end up like third-world African nations where electricity is purchased ahead of its use and only able to be used at certain times, yet this is already a reality in regional and remote Queensland, where households are put on 'economy' tariffs and can only use power for about eight hours a day. How long will it be before only the very wealthy have access to electricity 24 hours a day? That could well be not all that far off. This reckless Labor-Greens-Teal-Pocock cabal continues down the suicidal path of unreliable and expensive wind and solar in the pursuit of net zero fantasies and nightmares—a path the LNP initiated in 1997.