Peta Credlin: Anthony Albanese may crow now but trouble lies ahead

The government won’t be able to blame its predecessor or the Ukraine war when the lights start going out after both the Liddell and the Eraring power stations have closed by the time of the next election.

As the Albanese Government reached its six-month mark last week, the Prime Minister took to his feet in parliament and rattled off a list of achievements, most of them more political than practical.

But if the Opposition plays its cards right, the next election is no sure thing for Labor, especially because its two key election commitments — to increase real wages and to cut household power bills by $275 a year — are bound not to be kept.

With power bills skyrocketing and interest rates doubling, most families are under severe cost-of-living pressure, yet government policy is sure to make it worse.

The government says that its industry-wide bargaining bill is going to get wages moving again.

In fact, it will give unions more power to bludgeon small businesses into one-size-fits-all wage deals, and expose everyone to more strikes, like those that have routinely crippled the Sydney rail network and that are disrupting imports in the run-up to Christmas.

There’s pain ahead for consumers when Liddell Power Station closes.

In Question Time, the government couldn’t name a single small business that supported its legislation. That’s no wonder, given that Labor had explicitly denied any such plan pre-election.

As well, by increasing immigration back to pre-pandemic levels of about 250,000 a year — given that every migrant needs a job, a home and a way to get around — the government is going to put downward pressure on wages, upward pressure on housing costs, and more pressure on roads and public transport systems that are already struggling to cope.

Then there’s the government’s climate policy, which is 100 per cent certain to make electricity more expensive and less reliable.

Even the energy minister admits that for renewable energy to be 82 per cent of our power supply by 2030, 22,000 solar panels have to be installed every single day, and 40 giant wind turbines have to be built each and every month, for the whole of next eight years.

As well, 28,000km of new transmission lines must be built to cope with a decentralised power grid.

Then there’s the back-up generation for when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.

Even their proponents admit that grid-scale batteries can keep cities going for less than 30 minutes and the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro scheme is years behind schedule and billions over budget.

Given current supply chain disruptions, current skills shortages, and current delays in planning permissions, does anyone think that this is achievable?

Yet the government is committed to the accelerated closure of the coal-fired power stations that currently provide 60 per cent of our overall power supply, and nearly all of it during the night.

The government won’t be able to blame its predecessor or the Ukraine war when the lights start going out after both the Liddell and the Eraring power stations have closed by the time of the next election.

And it doesn’t matter what voters tell pollsters now about the appeal of renewable energy; they’ll blame the government if they can’t afford their power bills and can no longer charge their mobile phones and electric cars.

Then there’s the government’s determination to establish a constitutionally entrenched indigenous Voice to parliament.

The PM is telling the public that it’s just a matter of being “polite” to Indigenous people but he’s also telling the Indigenous leadership that only a “brave” government would ignore the Voice’s advice.

It won’t be easy to persuade people to support something that is simultaneously no big deal yet also a very big deal indeed.

And it’s very hard to see the Opposition not campaigning strongly against a measure that would create two classes of Australian based on racial ancestry, and that would make the government of 100 per cent of the people subject to the opinions of 4 per cent.

Finally, there’s the question of the republic, which the government says is a matter for a second term, but which the relevant minister is already beginning consultations on.

Especially given the surge of respect generated by the late Queen’s passing, this could alarm all the voters who took seriously the Prime Minister’s pre-election assurance that he was “safe change”.

Of course, even if the economy is tanking, the government could survive if it can paint the alternative as clueless.

This is where Peter Dutton and his team will need credible plans to reduce power prices, get government spending under control and turbo-charge the economy.

Stopping the premature closure of coal plants, ending the ban on nuclear energy and avoiding all new spending that’s not funded from savings in existing spending would be a good place to start.

But that means a readiness to take tough stands that the Liberal Party hasn’t had for some time.

Thumbs up

Mulgrave Independent Ian Cook – whatever happens, it takes a lot of courage to take on Daniel Andrews in his own seat and, if nothing else, Cook has sent a very clear signal that integrity matters.

Thumbs down

Scott Morrison’s ministry grab – the former PM deserves all the criticism he’s copped in a report from a former High Court judge for being sworn into multiple portfolios without the knowledge of the ministers who thought they were running them, and the Australian public. None of his excuses wash. And everyone who knows how government works knows it.

Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm.

Originally published as Peta Credlin: Anthony Albanese may crow now but trouble lies ahead