A “bat symbol” for renewables: Cannon-Brookes launches “fair dinkum” power

Scott Morrison’s grasp on his favourite Alan Jones-approved energy policy slogan, “fair dinkum power,” continues to slip, as the campaign to reclaim it for renewables rather than coal gains serious momentum.

As we reported here yesterday, tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes late Wednesday launched a series of tweets challenging the Morrison government over its labelling of “baseload” and coal power as “fair dinkum” generation, and called for a “movement” to embrace wind and solar – and to dub that “fair dinkum power”.

Since then, Cannon-Brookes has registered the brand, created a new Twitter handle, crowd sourced a logo (see above), and is in the process of putting in place “some sort of licensing plan” to use @fairdinkumpower to promote local innovation in renewable energy, storage and other future-supporting technologies.

“We’re going to give away the logo, we’re going to open-source it if you like, and try to get people to put their people power behind it,” Cannon-Brookes told The Project on Network Ten on Thursday night.

“(It will be a sort of) bat symbol for renewable energy generation, if you like, for people to rally behind.

“We’ll use it to promote a lot of Aussie innovations, put it on the side of the (Tesla/Neoen big battery in South Australia). Show the world what we do.”

And while the movement is currently causing a great deal of media sensation – and spawning actual articles about whether it’s ok for a billionaire to stake any claim over the phrase “fair dinkum” – it’s worth noting that it all started from a place of sheer frustration.

“It’s pretty simple, I don’t think the government is being fair dinkum about their use of the term fair dinkum power,” Cannon-Brookes told The Project.

“I think they are not telling Australians why their power is expensive, and they’re trying to pay their agenda forward.

“They’re not actually, at the moment, trying to do anything about (expensive electricity), they’re trying to protect coal’s interests.”

We get it. And we wish the campaign all the best.

And yes, it’s true The Australian, Cannon-Brookes does not own the domain name, www.fairdinkumpower.com.au. And he’s ok with that.

And we’re ok with the person who does currently own it to be linking it to RE for the time being. Do visit!