Vale Allan Moffat, the gentleman racer

With Allan Moffat's 1977 Hardie-Ferrodo 1000 winner's trophy at the Dog on the Tuckerbox.

Allan Moffat was Canadian by birth, but Australian by choice and by deed. He arrived here with an accent, a ruthless work ethic, and a gift for driving a race car on the absolute limit with a grace that made it look effortless. Four Bathurst wins, four Australian Touring Car titles, a Le Mans class victory, and more lap records than most drivers have race starts. Yet he was never less than courteous, never less than impeccably turned out, never anything less than a gentleman.

He gave us the 1-2 fairy tale of ’77, and decades of Ford versus Holden battles that felt like civil war on wheels. Australian motorsport would have been quieter, slower, and far less colourful without him.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Vale Allan Moffat, the gentleman racer.

I was seven years old when Allan Moffat and Colin Bond crossed the line 1-2 in their Ford XC Falcon Hardtops at Bathurst in 1977. I still remember seeing these incredible cars crossing the finish line in a manner that defied the plan of Ken Miles and the Shelby Cobras at Le Mans… pic.twitter.com/r5fVh4La69

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) November 22, 2025

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