In a week where it was that Australia’s uptake of electric cars has increased 300 per cent in the last year,matching the surge in the value of Tesla shares since last October,I have finally succumbed to the editor’s request to write on what its like to drive and own one.
A person walks past a Tesla electric vehicle at the company's delivery center in Marina Del Rey,California.Bloomberg
Upsides
Britain will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035,five years earlier than planned,with Prime Minister Boris Johnson officially setting out the roadmap on Tuesday.
Downsides
All up,though,it is 10 times better than any other car I’ve ever driven. I only wish I’d had the brains earlier to realise my experience would be matched by everyone else who got in one,and I’d got in on when it was only a few hundred dollars.
Tim's take
That whispering sigh of relief from the south? It just might be the late,great,Tim Fischer,not rolling over in his grave. About a fortnight before he died last year,our former Deputy Prime Minister told me firmly:“I will resign from the National Party if Barnaby Joyce ever becomes its leader again.” It wasnot personal,as he quite liked the garrulous member for New England. It was the fear that Joyce would take the National Party backwards.
Tim’s widow Judy,who on Saturday gave me her blessing to put this in the public domain,is firm.“Tim wanted the National Party only to move forward,not back. He saw a great future for regional Australia and agriculture if we embraced the opportunities and worked together’ She also notes,“Coincidentally today is the annual Tumbatrek walk Tim started,being lead by Michael McCormack,which is more relevant today than ever with the bushfire damage through the Kosciusko area."
Tim Fischer wanted his party to go forward.SMH
Joke of the Week
A Dubliner is drinking Guinness in a bar. A man of Asian ethnicity sits next to him and has a couple of drinks. After a while the Dubliner turns to him and says,“Do you know them martial arts,Kung Fu,Taekwondo,Judo and such?”
Offended,the man replies,“Are you asking me this because I look Chinese?”
“No.” says the Irishman,“Because yer drinkin’ me fookin Guinness!”
Quotes of the Week
"I’m not relying on evidence,Hamish.”- Clearly. LNP Senator Jim Molan onQ&A,ignoring the science and evidence of climate change. It drew heckles from the crowd.
“The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes,he did.” - Senator Mitt Romney,covering himself in glory as the only Republican in the Senate with the courage to speak the obvious truth on the proposed impeachment of President Trump.
“Matt Canavan resigned his position as resources minister,and I wish him all the best.” -Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack,after seeing off the attempted Barnaby Joyce putsch,backed by Canavan.
“Remember,I've been in politics longer than Scott Morrison,and I've been in leadership longer than Scott Morrison. I know how to deal at the highest level. I've been at the table,and for our team,for the Nationals team,if I'm given the opportunity,the great honour to do that again,I will.” -Barnaby Joyce talking big before the leadership challenge.
“Every New Zealander is on a journey as we forge,nearly 200 years on,to work out what this nation is and who we are. On this sort of occasion and this week at this place,to convey a message that we want to make this work,that we want to move closer to you rather than make you come closer to us,it's been great to be a part of that.” - New Zealand's Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little at Waitangi's Treaty Grounds in the lead-up to the country's national day. Mr Little gave his speech entirely in Maori.
“How much worse does this have to get before the science stops being ignored? It’s the lack of visionary policies to protect our country and people for the future that has brought us to the point where we felt we had to raise our voice and demand action on the science.” -Professor Katrin Meissner,director of UNSW's Climate Change Research Centre,one of more than 250 scientists from Australia and overseas who have called for deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in an open letter drawing together peer-reviewed literature on the"strong"and"unequivocal"links between worsening bushfires and human-induced climate change.
"The time's right for me,my family and for the Greens. It's a tough,demanding job. It's been a privilege to do it. But I've got to the point in my life where I've got two young boys[and] I want to be there for them. Being away for half the year from a young family has just become,for me,too difficult. And when I've got my youngest boy saying,'I wish you weren't a politician,Dad,because we don't see you,'it's telling you something.” - Senator Richard Di Natale about why he is resigning as leader of the Greens and will leave Federal Parliament within months.
Twitter:@Peter_Fitz