Ten years ago, on this day, June 10th, 2015 soon to be ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott was being, well, Tony Abbott.
Bill Shorten accuses PM of hurting investment in renewables as Abbott says his government is working to reduce the number of ‘visually awful’ turbines
Tony Abbott finds windfarms visually awful and agrees they may have “potential health impacts”, and says the deal on the renewable energy target was designed to reduce their numbers as much as the current Senate would allow.
Speaking to the Sydney radio host Alan Jones – a long-term windfarm critic – the prime minister said: “I do take your point about the potential health impact of these things … when I’ve been up close to these windfarms not only are they visually awful but they make a lot of noise.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 403ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that Tony Abbott is an idiot
The specific context was that Tony Abbott is an idiot and that his outriders and enablers are also idiots. Often they are smart, and have no excuse for what they did, beyond greed.
What I think we can learn from this
As human beings we choose the most idiotic to lead us (see the psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion on this).
As “active citizens” we should watch out for allowing idiots to lead us.
Academics might like to ponder – their role in puffing up idiots to lead us.
What happened next
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What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day: