Australia’s “renewables honeymoon” is ending and the energy bill is coming due.

In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions, we unpack the myth that government planning can fix every problem, from the $52 billion NDIS blowout to Labor’s net zero ambitions. Drawing on Friedrich Hayek’s timeless warning against the “conceit of planners,” Michael Stutchbury explores how Australia’s big-spending policies, from the NBN to Gonski and now the renewables transition, have delivered diminishing returns, rising costs, and lost productivity.

Stutchbury also covers:

• Why Australia’s decarbonisation plan may never meet 2030 or 2050 targets

• The real reason power prices keep rising despite “free” solar and wind

• How subsidies and political conceit mask the true costs of energy policy

• Why a new political bargain — including nuclear and gas — may be inevitable

This is a must-listen for anyone interested in energy policy, economic reform, Hayekian economics, and the future of net zero in Australia.

Research mentioned: The Renewable Energy Honeymoon: starting is easy, the rest is hard: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-renewable-energy-honeymoon-starting-is-easy-the-rest-is-hard/ The New Leviathan: A National Disability Insurance Scheme: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-new-leviathan-a-national-disability-insurance-scheme-3/

Gorillas In The Mist. How government obscures its spending: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/gorillas-in-the-mist-how-government-obscures-its-spending/ Subscribe to The Stutchbury Sessions on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM or listen in your browser.