On energy, primum non nocere

The phrase primum non nocere means first, do no harm. It was coined by the Greek physician Hippocrates to guide doctors and remains a key principle of medical practice.

It is a great shame that such wise and enduring guidance was never adopted by governments, because the harm done by doctors is minor compared to the harm done by governments.

Australia is blessed with abundant natural resources, being one of the world's leading producers of bauxite, iron ore, lithium, gold, lead, rare earths, uranium and zinc. It is also a large producer of ilmenite, zircon, rutile, black coal, manganese, antimony, nickel, silver, cobalt, copper and tin.

A government that did no harm would, above all, ensure nothing prevented the country from benefiting from these resources. Given its natural advantages, Australians should be the richest people in the world.

And yet, with their green tape, red tape, black tape, restrictive labour regulations, protracted approvals and uncompetitive rates of taxation, our governments are ensuring that is not the case.

A classic example is the slow-motion train wreck that is Australia's energy market. In good health a couple of decades ago, it now barely qualifies as a market at all. Riddled with Chicken Little catastrophists, spineless bureaucrats and virtue signalling hypocrites – and massively influenced by a cartel of renewable energy rent-seekers who are raking in billions of dollars gaming the system, raising energy prices, impoverishing consumers, destroying jobs, and fleecing taxpayers – Australia's energy market has been distorted and corrupted by government intervention at every level.

That intervention relies on a series of assumptions. First, that the changing climate, unlike previous periods of climate change, is due to human activity, in particular the use of coal, oil and gas as sources of energy.

Second, that Australia's emissions make a material contribution to that change despite accounting for barely one per cent of the global total.

Third, that by reducing these emissions to meet a notional target, Australia will help mitigate global warming as well as reduce floods, droughts and bushfires.

And finally, that all this remains true despite China doing nothing to reduce its emissions while accounting for over 30% of the global total and generating more in a fortnight than Australia produces in a year.

Those assumptions have led our governments to embark on decade-long policies of replacing the use of fossil fuels with sun and wind generation, subsidising and facilitating roof top and large-scale solar, huge wind farms, invasive transmission lines, electric vehicles and charging stations. Coal fired generators are being closed prematurely (and then paid to remain open as power shortages loom) and, despite its potential to stabilise unreliable renewable generation, new gas extraction is either blocked or hampered. Moreover, nuclear energy, which produces reliable energy with zero emissions, has been banned since 1998.

As a result, Australia has a precarious supply situation and is experiencing dramatic increases in electricity prices. The manufacturing sector is battling to survive, let alone lead a revival in local production, jobs are disappearing offshore, and low-income households are suffering.

Diverting our governments from these policies will probably not occur until there is a crisis: during a summer heatwave or a mid-winter freeze when demand is highest, very likely after the next coal-fired generator closes.

It will involve brownouts and blackouts. Businesses will be told to cease operations to reduce electricity consumption, there will be people trapped in lifts and, perhaps most significantly, millions will be unable to charge their phones or electric cars.

At that point public opinion will change. The many voters who repeatedly elected governments based on their promise to save the world from climate change will insist they never agreed to make sacrifices while doing so.

International opinion will also play a part - Australia is not the only country in which governments are inflicting this harm on their populations and economies. Germany and the UK, for example, have both signed up to the same policies and are experiencing similar decline.

Reality is beginning to overtake the fantasy. Oil and coal consumption continue to increase, and numerous countries are turning or returning to nuclear energy. In the US, the Trump administration is withdrawing subsidies for wind and solar generation, while everywhere (including in Australia) offshore wind projects are being cancelled. Given Australia's propensity to follow the rest of the world, these events will be influential.

The problem is, by the time there is a change of direction, even more damage will have been done to the economy, business and jobs. Not only will existing businesses have suffered, but new businesses and opportunities will have never been created.

If a doctor went about breaking the legs of patients on the basis that it might prevent people in other countries from being injured while crossing the road against the lights, it couldn't be much more stupid. Hippocrates would be rolling in his grave.