Stuart Wemyss

We are demanding a full retraction and public apology from the ABC. Last night on 7.30, the ABC deliberately misrepresented our report that led to the National Party abandoning Net Zero in an attempt to discredit our thorough research into the Australian energy market, net zero policies, and their effects on households, businesses and our environment. Our paper, Delivering a High Energy Australia, is a meticulous, evidence-based discussion paper built on more than 160 detailed references. It lays out, in full, how Net Zero is driving up energy prices, crippling Australian industry - and what we can do about it. But instead of engaging with the facts, the ABC tried to smear our work by claiming that our modelling came from Coal Australia. This is blatantly false. Our energy numbers both in this report, and the report we released earlier in the year have come from analysis of a number of sources, including but not limited to; the CSIRO, CIS, AEMO, Australian Energy Regulator, Australian Bureau of Statistics, DCCEEW, Net Zero Australia, Arche Energy, Adept Economics, the World Bank and the International Energy Agency. It also contained our own internal calculations based on publicly available data, and this too was made clear in both the body of the report and in the footnotes. The modelling Coal Australia commissioned from Clean Energy advisory firm Arche Energy merely reinforced our earlier findings, which is why we cited the work as an additional, supplementary reference in the report. And the ABC knew this. Before going to air, they reached out to us for clarification, and we made this clear. Yet despite knowing the truth, they ran the false claim anyway, and in doing so they knowingly misleading their audience to cast doubt on legitimate research. The ABC needs to be held accountable. We’ve demanded a full retraction and apology. Australians deserve to hear the truth, not taxpayer-funded lies designed to undermine real, legitimate research.