“I’m not a moron:” Barnaby Joyce warns of exploding solar PV and hot water systems

Nationals MP, former deputy prime minister and anti-renewables campaigner Barnaby Joyce has dug deeper into the Coalition’s concerns about Chinese software, warning that rooftop solar systems and hot water systems could be used by bad actors.

The Coalition warnings – they have been banging on about them for several years as part of their campaign against non fossil fuel technologies, be they inverters, electric vehicles or anything else that threatens legacy industries – have been revived by the Israeli attack against Hezbollah, where it used remote controls to cause thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies to explode.

“It’s quite obvious, we’ve seen it in live view and we’ve got to make sure that the capacity to turn off overloaders on hot water systems, on roofs,” Joyce said on the Sunrise program on Network 7 TV.

The followed this exchange:

TV host Natalie BARR: But that wasn’t the Chinese doing that. That was overseas that was against terror organisations –

JOYCE: I think any malevolent force that had capacity to do that needs to –

BARR: Do you think that could happen here?

JOYCE: Well, I don’t think anything. Well, I do think a lot. I’m not a moron. I do read and I do try and make sure across the brief, because that’s part of politics, making sure that any likely or possible threat that a cogent and proper authority has said you should have a look at, then I don’t just dismiss it, I say, ok, well, that’s fair enough. They know vastly more about this issue than I do, so let’s have a yarn about it.

Joyce said over the weekend that he was concerned about what he described as the 200,000 Chinese solar heaters sitting on the rooftops of Australian households.

“After the pager issue, the pagers basically blowing up around terrorists in southern Lebanon, the penny dropped for so many people that there is a capacity remotely to create massive pain, massive hurt, maybe at the least to create a complete breakdown and chaos,” Joyce said on Sky TV, the Guardian reported.

“People have got to start asking the questions like ‘if you can update the software, if you can track these vehicles, if they’re made in China, if there was a malevolent purpose behind it from a totalitarian state, what might be the consequences of that?’”

Environment minister Tanya Plibersek, speaking on the same Sunrise program on Monday, noted that there are computers in just about every device used by Australians.

“There’s computers in everything,” she said. “There’s computers in cars, in fridges, in microwaves, in your tv, and of course, all of them potentially can be accessed remotely.”

She noted that the Australian government is investing $600 million in its Cyber Security Strategy, and $70 million in countering foreign interference.

Last week, the Australian Energy Market Operator was given the formal mandate to maintain cyber security of the country’s electricity system.

AEMC chair Anna Collyer said in a statement that robust cyber security measures are crucial to ensure the reliability and resilience of electricity supply.

“Cyber security is an important enabler for the energy transition. For it to be successful, the associated risks need to be well managed,” Collyer said after the AEMC issued a draft ruling on the issue.

“This draft rule aims to provide AEMO with the necessary tools and resources to further bolster the National Electricity Market’s resilience against evolving cyber threats.”

Wayne Smith, the acting CEO of the Smart Energy Council, says Australia is a long way behind the rest of the world when it comes to the uptake of electric vehicles.

“We finally have fuel efficiency standards and that means we will see a significant number of cheaper electric vehicles coming to Australia from next year from many different nations. That’s good news for all Australians and must be encouraged,” he said.

“The idea that Australia is particularly vulnerable because solar panels, battery storage systems and electric vehicles are made in China is a special form of xenophobia, mixed with anti-renewables campaigning. 

“Cybersecurity is an issue Australia’s smart energy industry takes seriously. It’s not specific to any country and it’s not specific to any product but it is the highest priority.”

Plibersek used the opportunity, and Joyce’s apparent concern about foreign made goods, to argue that the Coalition should support its Made in Australia program, which is focusing on ensuring Australian manufacturing can play a key role in the supply chains, particularly for green energy products such as solar panels and batteries.

“We used to have a car industry in Australia. The Liberals and Nationals drove it out of Australia,” Plibersek said.

“And if Barnaby’s talking about making solar panels and batteries here in Australia, I agree with him. We should be doing that. That’s why he should be voting for our Future Made in Australia Bill. That’s exactly what it’s about. Bringing more of that manufacturing back onshore.”