Boeing Bowen heads up Turkey’s COP-out

Chris Bowen is not about leadership, he is all about frequent-flyer diplomacy.

Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, once stood before the nation and promised that Labor’s ‘Powering Australia’ plan would slash household power bills by $275 a year by 2025. That was the headline figure, repeated ad nauseam during the 2022 election campaign.

With 2025 now almost behind us, the average household is not $275 better off, it is hundreds of dollars worse off. Wholesale electricity prices have repeatedly spiked, retail offers have soared, and the subsidised-for-rich-people surge in rooftop solar and batteries has done precisely nothing to shield everyday consumers from the brutal reality of a grid that would crumble in the night without coal and gas.

Yet instead of staying home to fix the mess in his own portfolio, Mr Bowen is packing his bags for yet another international talk-fest.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Boeing Bowen heads up Turkey’s COP-out.

CHRIS BOWEN offered COP consolation prize chairing next climate talk-fest in Turkey.

"The irony is almost too rich. The man who cannot keep the lights on affordably at home will now lecture the world on climate ambition from the chair of the United Nations climate conference."… pic.twitter.com/Zzgiikf1JC

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) November 21, 2025

The future will be built by sustainable coal

Manook effectively said that coal had been ‘choked’ and unfairly excluded from the Net Zero debate.

Manook is sharp and unapologetic in a role that few would envy. Especially in Australia, where Chris Bowen and Sussan Ley have the same limited vocabulary when it comes to our energy debacle. But Manook wasn’t arguing for a particular technology, but rather for technological neutrality and a level playing field.

Manook stated the obvious. The Net Zero debate is not about outcomes, it is about politics. The oft-touted level playing field aims to give no particular technology an advantage, with the outcomes from any particular technology standing on its own merits.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, The future will be built by sustainable coal.

The future of sustainable energy will be built by COAL.

Yesterday at the Press Club, FutureCoal’s chief, Michelle Manook, was questioned by journos on her address entitled: "Thank You for Not Coaling – when the world insists coal has no future, what would you do?"

Manook is… pic.twitter.com/ccl2vCA7Gm

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) November 19, 2025

The trouble is nobody believes Sussan Ley

Sussan Ley’s decline has hit terminal velocity in the latest Redbridge poll.

Australia is going down the gurgler fast. Our economy is buggered, Woke stupidity has ruined our democratic institutions, and our political class wants us to be subjects of a United Nations now influenced by third-world countries, the majority of which are dictatorships. We allow too many people to enter our country and share in her bounty without adding anything. Too many are bringing their medieval hatreds to our shores. Even our national security head honcho is getting worried.

Ley is back on track. The trouble is … nobody believes her.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, The trouble is nobody believes Sussan Ley.

ONE NATION CLOSES IN ON SUSSAN LEY AT 18%. COALITION SLIPS TO 24%.

Polls aren’t prophecies, they’re prompts. The real story here isn’t Labor’s lead, it’s the fracturing of the conservative vote that’s been hijacked by moderates within the Liberals who have vested interests, and… pic.twitter.com/TIEOwMBlHa

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) November 16, 2025