There is no reason affordable and reliable electricity and freedom of speech can't be part of our future.

It’s Australia Day and I can’t rejoice.

Two hundred thousand people lost power in Victoria yesterday. After closing 10 coal-fired power stations in six years the grid can’t cope.

A fashionista from America who played the Devil wants our thought and speech controlled.

Home-grown elites are piling on the guilt about our legitimacy as a nation.

We can’t agree on anything.

When I was a kid growing up in Toowoomba things were simpler.

The only time we had load shedding was when Joh was fighting the militant unions.

Everyone knew what defined a marriage and you weren’t mocked for stating the obvious.

There is nothing as rose-coloured as nostalgia. But it is okay to benchmark.

We used to have affordable and reliable electricity. We used to have free speech.

There is no reason these things can’t be part of our future.

Much of the change since my childhood has been good. I don’t want to go back.

But without an economy and without freedom, there is no future.

Something has crept in.

Who told us we can’t burn coal? The rest of the world is and we are shipping it to them in record quantities.

Trad and Palaszczuk sit at the top of the Tower of Power and pocket the coal taxes to prop up their $80 billion credit card debt.

Who told us we can’t say certain things?

Since when did we take our cues from people who dress like Julie Bishop?

When did Australians start shaming sporting super stars for believing what everyone did five minutes ago?

Who is challenging the latent assumptions?

Bereft of leadership we drift.

Bill Shorten is ambling to victory in May.

Captured by green-left ideas, we are heading toward the cliff.

If you think your electricity bill is high now, wait until Labor’s energy policy takes hold.

If you feel like your thought and speech is suffocated now, prepare for more.

We are in for tough times.

This will sound self-serving.

But I think our only hope is to sandbag the Senate with true conservatives who will say what they mean and mean what they say.

We are in this mess because leaders have lacked conviction.

The Greens have filled the void. It is time to fight back.