We should absolutely be making our own solar and batteries, a smart government would have included some money in the budget towards kick starting and incentivising that, they could call it Future Made in Australia.

The problem with Nuclear is that it requires multiple decade commitments to be practical, we have an entire wing of politics which actively wants to take retrograde steps to keep us on gas and coal as long as possible, the next time they are in power they will find ways to go slow on nuclear.

You are right that the best time to start is decades ago, but starting it now will result in us making Hinkley Point look like a model of efficiency.

What we need is to develop our grid in distinct achievable packets of work to minimise the Liberal parties opportunities to piss all over modernisation to help their billionaire buddies.

I have had multiple people show me that 7 Spotlight propaganda piece and try to tell me this is why renewables are a scam, then get defensive and rude when I ask which liar they want me to listen to, the Journalist turned fossil fuel PR flack turned "Veteran Journalist" (who works for a company owned by a billionaire), the politician (and member of a climate denial club called Saltbush that counts a certain mining magnate billionaire as a member) that wants us to build out coal and concedes we should probably do nuclear at some stage, the "conservationist" who won't admit who is funding him and appears to be a compulsive liar.

We need to get rid of coal and gas as quickly as possible, we need to reduce our usage of fossil fuels in the transport sector, and we need to kick start local manufacturing and R&D. Once we have a reasonable level of security we can start building out capacity for the next century, until then I worry we will be debating and procrastinating until the rest of the world overtakes us... Or worse, laps us.