Chris Bowen and the Art of Guesswork:
Chris Bowen and the Art of Guesswork: When Energy Policy Becomes “Chrisinformation”
It takes a special kind of confidence to dismiss four years of painstaking research with a shrug and a smirk. Enter Chris Bowen, Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, who recently accused Rainforest Reserves Australia (RRA) of “vastly over-estimating” the land footprint of renewable projects. His evidence? A hunch, a camera phone, and a new genre of political spin: Chrisinformation.1
The RRA Data: Four Years vs. Four Seconds
RRA’s mapping project is no back-of-the-envelope doodle. It catalogues 1,126 renewable projects, including 584 million solar panels and nearly 45,000 km of haulage roads for wind farms.2 It’s the most comprehensive national dataset ever compiled on the physical footprint of renewables.
Bowen’s counter? A video filmed in his office, claiming the real footprint is just “12 per cent” of RRA’s estimate. No data, no methodology, no peer review—just a politician’s gut feeling.
If this were a workplace safety audit, Bowen’s submission would be rejected before morning tea. Imagine telling SafeWork NSW: “Don’t worry about the scaffolding collapse risk, mate. My gut says it’s fine.”
Satire Writes Itself
Bowen’s “Chrisinformation” video could double as a training module in How Not to Do Evidence-Based Policy.
His dismissal of RRA as “anti-renewable, pro-nuclear activists” is the political equivalent of calling your maths teacher “anti-fun” after failing algebra.
If renewable rollout planning were a toolbox talk, Bowen would be the bloke who rocks up without PPE, waves vaguely at the site plan, and says: “She’ll be right.”
Why It Matters
This isn’t about being pro- or anti-renewables. It’s about planning literacy. Conservationists—including former Greens leader Christine Milne—have praised RRA’s work and called for “renewables no-go zones” to protect biodiversity.1 Even the Wilderness Society has warned that the renewables revolution risks repeating the extractive mistakes of the industrial revolution.
When ministers dismiss data instead of engaging with it, they don’t just undermine trust—they bulldoze the very accountability that makes democracy work.
Closing Note
Australia deserves leaders who can read a map, not just wave one away. Until then, we’ll keep calling out the guesswork, the spin, and the Chrisinformation. Because if the future of energy is going to be renewable, the future of politics had better be accountable.
Sources
1There’s Misinformation. Disinformation. And then there is Chrisinformation, The Australian (via Hancock Energy), 9 Oct 2025. Link
2Comprehensive renewables mapping elicits contrasting responses, Australian Rural & Regional News, 9 Oct 2025. Link
