Malcolm Turnbull backs historic Liberal rule to stop coup culture, as he pushes for NEG to be revived
Scott Morrison has dubbed Labor “the enemy” as he was forced to water down his ‘big stick’ energy policy after a backlash, while Malcolm Turnbull has weighed in urging him to revive the NEG.
National
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Scott Morrison has watered down his “big stick” policy to force energy companies to lower their power prices today after a backlash from retailers and members of his own party, including Julie Bishop.
It comes as Malcolm Turnbull today made his second explosive intervention into Australian politics this week, calling on his former Liberal colleagues to revive the National Energy Guarantee while declaring a large number of them were climate-change deniers.
The former prime minister has denied he is becoming a “miserable ghost”, a term he has used to describe Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd for speaking out against their parties, after weighing into politics this week over pre-selection battles.
Meanwhile, Mr Morrison has watered down his proposed “big stick” powers to forcibly divest energy companies of their assets if they don’t lower power prices after several backbenchers spoke out against the plan during a party room meeting.
It’s understood four Coalition MPs - including Ms Bishop - opposed the legislation outright in a tense party room meeting, while14 others who spoke up about it, including a number who were not happy with the proposal but ultimately supported it.
Mr Morrison tried to fire up his colleagues, telling them “it’s time to move into full engagement with the enemy” - meaning Labor - during the meeting, while reassuring them about the need for the “big stick” policy.
He said he understood their concerns about the policy but noted that the laws had begun under Mr Turnbull’s cabinet and were targeted at a sector where “sweetheart deals come at the expense of consumers”.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Energy Minister Angus Taylor announced a new version of the policy, which would see the Treasurer forced to apply to the Federal Court to divest energy companies of their assets, with the courts to have the final say rather than him.
The Treasurer would only be able to apply for an order to break up a company where a company’s conduct has been “fraudulent, dishonest or in bad faith for the purpose of distorting or manipulating prices”.
He would also only be ably to apply if both the Treasurer and ACCC were satisfied the order would result in benefit to the public.
Energy and business industry groups had spoken out against the original divestiture powers, warning they could blur the lines between parliament and the judiciary, and be open to a High Court challenge.
Mr Frydenberg rejected Mr Turnbull’s call for the government to revive the NEG.
He told reporters in Canberra that the revised “big stick” policy was the result of consultation with colleagues, stakeholders and industry.
“This policy is actually better for the consultation,” he said.
TURNBULL: REVIVE THE NEG
Mr Turnbull urged the government to revive his signature energy policy today and criticised the “minority” of conservative MPs led by Tony Abbott who were “prepared to cross the floor” or “blow up the government” to get their way when he was Prime Minister.
“Without the NEG we’re going to end up with higher emissions and higher energy prices,” Mr Turnbull told the Smart Energy Council summit.
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“Like Julie Bishop, and many others, I would encourage, at the risk of being criticised for speaking about politics - which apparently former prime ministers aren’t allowed to do - I would strongly encourage my colleagues to work together to revive the National Energy Guarantee.
“It was a vital piece of economic policy and had strong support - none stronger than that of the current prime minister [Scott Morrison] and the current treasurer [Josh Frydenberg].”
He added: “There is a significant percentage of the Coalition members who do not believe that climate change is real, who believe we should get out of Paris for example and even some who would rather the government, instead of building Snowy 2.0, build a new coal-fired power station. You may recall Barnaby Joyce made that helpful suggestion in the final week of the Wentworth by-election.”
Mr Turnbull denied he had been the one to abandon the NEG in the week before he was rolled in a leadership spill, saying it had been a decision made by the Cabinet.
“It has been abandoned by the federal government. I regret that, naturally, as indeed does just about everyone in the federal government. It did have the overwhelming support of the party room and indeed the cabinet. There was a minority of Coalition MPs who effectively torpedoed what was fundamentally a very good technology agnostic energy policy which ... would enable us to bring down prices and keep the lights on.
“I did not abandon the NEG as our policy. It remained but in the frantic last week of my prime minister-ship - and the insurgency which of course undermined and ultimately brought it to an end - the cabinet resolved not to introduce the legislation until we were sure we could secure its passage.
“Anxious to keep the government together, I didn’t want to see an important piece of economic legislation defeated on the floor of the house.”
Mr Abbott and a handful of other MPs threatened to cross the floor to block the NEG, despite the then-Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg having secured support for it from the states and industry.
The Prime Minister and Opposition leader Bill Shorten clashed over the NEG in Question Time today after Mr Turnbull’s intervention.
During the session Mr Turnbull took to social media to reject reports he was encouraging the government to adopt “Labor’s policy”, given it now supported his NEG plan but with a higher emissions reduction target.
“I have not endorsed ‘Labor’s energy policy,” Mr Turnbull wrote.
“They have adopted the NEG mechanism (tick) but have not demonstrated that their 45 per cent emissions reduction target will not push up prices.
“I encouraged all parties to stick with Coalition’s NEG which retains wide community support.”
Mr Turnbull’s original policy set the emissions reduction target at 26 per cent.
NEW LEADERSHIP RULE CHANGES
Earlier today, Mr Turnbull welcomed historic changes to Liberal Party rules which would have stopped him being rolled in a leadership spill in August.
“I think people will welcome the prospect of there being less of the revolving door prime minister-ship,” Mr Turnbull told reporters in Sydney this morning after Liberal MPs voted to change the rules in Canberra last night.
It will now require two-thirds of the party room to vote for a leadership change if the party wants to ditch a sitting Prime Minister.
“It’s a welcome reform. Of course, how effective it will be — time will tell,” Mr Turnbull said.
It was revealed this morning former Liberal prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott were consulted — but Mr Turnbull wasn’t — before Liberal MPs voted to changes the rules in a late-night meeting at Parliament House yesterday.
It’s understood Liberal MPs were unaware the emergency meeting was going to be called, leaving veteran MP Julie Bishop to arrive almost 30 minutes late and one MP, James McGrath, ducking out of a Sky News interview while on air.
Senior Liberal frontbencher Mathias Cormann downplayed the haste to deal with the rules in the final sitting week of parliament for 2018 this morning, saying the leadership team had been talking about the proposal since last week.
“We are very keen to ensure that people across Australia can have confidence that if they elect Scott Morrison as Prime Minister at the next election, which we hope they will, that Scott Morrison will be the Prime Minister all the way through to the subsequent election,” he told ABC.
He also defended the decision for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to consult Mr Howard and Mr Abbott, but not his immediate predecessor Mr Turnbull.
“Obviously Tony Abbott remains a member of the party room, and he was very supportive of the change,” Senator Cormann said.
“John Howard is an absolute giant of the Liberal Party, having been our longest serving prime minister.
“So I mean, I think that it was entirely appropriate for the Prime Minister to engage with Tony Abbott, as somebody who is a member of the party room, and indeed, with John Howard.
“Clearly, in relation to Malcolm Turnbull, he has left the parliament, he’s said himself that he’s retired from politics.”
Prime Minister Morrison said last night that leadership spills had “been the great anguish of the Australian people.”
“They’re sick of it and we’re sick of it and it has to stop. That’s why we’ve put this rule in place,” he said.
Labor pointed out this morning that Mr Morrison said as recently as mid-November that the Liberal Party did not need to change its rules regarding sitting Prime Ministers.
“We have a parliamentary democracy in Australia, it’s not a presidential system,” Mr Morrison said in an interview with Studio Ten.
“John Howard also had this strong view and it is that we represent our elected members of parliament, they go to parliament and they elect who their leader is to run their Parliamentary party.
“That has been the case since Federation began and that is what a representative parliamentary democracy is, not just here or any other part of the world where that’s done.
“So we don’t have any plans to change our processes but what we have plans to do, is just get on with the job of governing.”
Mr Turnbull was dumped as prime minister in August, with Mr Morrison taking his place. Before that Mr Turnbull in 2015 replaced Mr Abbott, who led the party to power from opposition in 2013.
Labor has also dumped sitting prime ministers. Kevin Rudd was replaced as Labor prime minister by Julia Gillard in 2010 before he returned to the top job in 2013.
Labor changed its party rules after Ms Gillard was toppled by Mr Rudd so that leadership contenders have to gain a majority of votes in the caucus and in a grassroots party ballot.
— with AAP
Originally published as Malcolm Turnbull backs historic Liberal rule to stop coup culture, as he pushes for NEG to be revived
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