Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor's aspiring New South Wales Premier Chris Minns apparently had a bit of a problem on the campaign trail yesterday. His electric campaign bus, full of staffers and reporters, ran out of power. We hear that they had to be rescued by a bus with a more reliable diesel engine. In the end it's only a minor embarrassment for Mr Minns, but once again the incident was not a great look for those who say that electric vehicles are going to save the planet from climate change. We're constantly told that these vehicles will reduce fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions.

Companies falling over themselves to pander to green Left climate activists have been quick to showcase their uptake of electric vehicle technology. These include mining companies, which are all too often the target of activists, even though without them there wouldn't be any of the raw materials needed to make wind turbines, solar panels and rechargeable batteries. This trend has seen mining companies replace diesel powered haul dump trucks with electric-diesel trucks in an effort to reduce their fossil fuel use and so-called carbon footprint. Those diesel trucks were burning 3,000 to 4,000 litres of diesel every 24 hours. However, the electric-diesel trucks are burning no less than 5,000 litres of diesel fuel every 24 hours, at least 25 per cent more than the diesel-only vehicles.

Of course the green Left activists will continue to signal the virtues of this wonderful fuel-saving technology. As I've said before, hypocrisy is the new green Left virtue, and they never let the facts stand in the way of a good story.