National Energy Guarantee: Government considering price caps for ‘NEG-plus’
REBEL MP George Christensen’s shopping list of demands for his support of the National Energy Guarantee has been dismissed as “ludicrous” and “clueless” by Labor.
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GEORGE Christensen’s demand that Malcolm Turnbull slash Australia’s target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 17 per cent - or he’ll cross the floor on a crucial energy policy -has been labelled “ludicrous”.
The Queensland MP, one of up to eight rebel Coalition MPs threatening to block the Prime Minister’s National Energy Guarantee, has outlined several demands that must be met before he’ll support the plan.
Labor’s energy and climate change spokesman Mark Butler labelled Mr Christensen’s demand “ludicrous” given it would effectively mean Australia would need to increase its carbon emissions.
“This just shows how clueless the Coalition party room is when it comes to energy and climate policy,” Mr Butler told News Corp.
“The Energy Security Board modelling already shows the electricity sector will reach a 24 per cent cut in emissions in 2020-21 without any new policy.
“Malcolm Turnbull’s emissions reduction target of 26 per cent is pathetic, George Christensen’s target is ludicrous.
“Reaching Mr Christensen’s target would mean cancelling already committed renewable projects, something I’m sure he and his climate deniers would like to do.”
Mr Christensen has since clarified his demand, saying: “The idea is not to reduce emissions by 17 per cent but to only apply fines to generators who don’t achieve reductions of 17 per cent rather than 26 per cent which hails from the failed Paris Agreement.”
“Mark Butler wants it to be 45 per cent which means power prices will be higher, costing households and jobs.”
The idea is not to reduce emissions by 17% but to only apply fines to generators who don't achieve reductions of 17% rather than 26% which hails from the failed Paris Agreement. Mark Butler wants it to be 45% which means power prices will be higher, costing households & jobs.
— George Christensen (@GChristensenMP) August 16, 2018
Mr Christensen told The Australian he is also demanding the government commit to launching a new clean coal fund and changes that would allow the consumer watchdog to force AGL’s Liddell coal fired power station open beyond its set closure date of 2022.
He has also called for price targets to be added to the NEG and for the government to boost the pensioner energy supplement and to adopt all 56 recommendations from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s recent report on tackling high power costs.
Mr Christensen confirmed he would cross the floor unless his call for the emissions reduction target to be reduced was met.
“If I am being asked to vote for an emissions reduction target based on the Paris agreement, I would have to vote against it,” Mr Christensen told The Australian. “I will be voting against it.”
It comes after it was revealed price caps for “default” electricity contracts are being considered as part of a plan to drive down household power bills.
Treasurer Scott Morrison confirmed this morning the government was considering price regulation as part of an “NEG-plus” plan.
It comes after up to eight Coalition MPs including Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce, George Christensen and Tony Pasin reserved their right to cross the floor on the NEG, which could block the policy if Labor refuses to support it.
The plan for a price cap for “default” electricity contracts was a recommendation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in its report last month on tackling high electricity prices, titled Restoring Electricity Affordability and Australia’s Competitive Advantage.
Mr Joyce and others have called for more regulation around price to force the big energy companies to help consumers more or for penalties, such as the forced divestment of their assets, if they don’t comply.
“What the ACCC has recommended, I think, are very strong measures to ensure that the big energy companies behave to exactly the ends that Barnaby’s talking about and I have a lot of sympathy with that view,” Mr Morrison told ABC radio today.
But he warned that price regulation alone would not force electricity costs down.
“You have price regulation here in the ACT and this year the prices are going up in regulated price markets and have started going down in markets that aren’t regulated,” Mr Morrison said.
“So price regulation doesn’t necessarily mean prices go down. What matters is using the powers you have, or attracting additional powers, that ensure that the big energy companies don’t use the regulation in their favour and we make sure the regulation works in the favour of customers.
“I think we could do some really constructive things here to address the concerns that have been raised.”
Mr Morrison also said Mr Turnbull, who has now met with a number of the rebel backbenchers, was “working through the issues that colleagues have raised” in a “constructive and consultative way”.
Under the ACCC’s recommendation, number 30 of 56 suggestions on how to tackle high power prices, standard retail contracts would be abolished and replaced with a “default” market offer that would have a price cap set by the Australian Energy Regulator.
A default offer would be given to consumers in all circumstances where a standing offer is currently used, such as when someone moves to a new home but has not contacted the retailer yet, or when a consumer has not selected a new market offer before their current contract expires.
The AER would be given the power to set a maximum price for the default offer in each state or territory.
Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler has indicated the party would be open to a price cap for default contracts.
“I think that’s a very well thought-out, serious recommendation,” he told Sky News.
But Mr Butler refused to clarify this morning whether his party would back or sink the NEG.
“We are going to take this as it comes and we are going to argue very strongly for our emissions reduction target,” Mr Butler told ABC radio.
He said the government’s 26 per cent target was effectively a 2 per cent emissions reduction target over the decade because it was coming off a 2005 baseline.
Mr Butler claimed the government’s current NEG proposal would ensure no large-scale renewable energy projects would be built for 10 years and the rate of installation of rooftop solar in households would be halved.
He also signalled Labor would call for a Senate inquiry into the NEG if the policy passed the lower house, a standard process but which could potentially delay it being passed for months.
Meanwhile, Mr Turnbull is refusing to publicly rebuke Mr Abbott after he called the NEG a “dud” policy yesterday.
The Prime Minister also clarified he had not likened Mr Abbott’s rejection of the NEG to “idiocy” earlier this week.
“The remarks I’ve made about ideology and idiocy were directed at the Labor Party, and particularly in South Australia, where they succeeded in having so much wind power that it would generate more than 100 per cent of the state’s demands when the wind was blowing, and 0 per cent when it wasn’t,” Mr Turnbull said today.
He continued the put pressure on Opposition leader Bill Shorten to back the plan, saying even the Labor leader’s former union, the Australian Workers’ Union, had backed the NEG.
The government will need Mr Shorten’s support in both the upper house and lower house to pass the NEG later this year if Coalition MPs cross the floor to block it.
“It’s about time Bill Shorten put his hand up and said he was going to back the National Energy Guarantee and back lower energy prices for all Australians,” Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Turnbull also played down reports one of his leadership team, Keith Pitt, the Assistant Minister to Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, was considering resigning his frontbench position over his concerns about the NEG.
“I’m not going to comment on any discussions with other colleagues but I can say no member of my ministry has indicated to me that they are planning to or would want to resign,” the Prime Minister told reporters in Canberra.