NEG showdown: Exit Paris and kiss EU trade deal goodbye, senior minister warns
PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull has received the strong endorsement of the coalition party room for his signature energy policy, after fending off last-minute attacks from predecessor Tony Abbott.
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MALCOLM Turnbull has declared he has overwhelming support for the government’s signature energy policy following a marathon party room meeting.
Senior sources described the mood as “very positive” with fewer than a dozen MPs raising concerns with the National Energy Guarantee.
The Daily Telegraph understands there were eight MPs in total who reserved their right to cross the floor to oppose legislating the Paris emission reduction target - Tony Abbott, Andrew Hastie, Tony Pasin, Andrew Gee, Eric Abetz, Kevin Andrews, Craig Kelly and George Christensen.
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg will go into a phone hook up with state ministers at 6pm able to draw a line under one of the demands from Labor states to have party room sign off.
However, the government is confident Labor will begrudgingly support it after trying to amend the 26 per cent target to match their policy of 45 per cent.
Despite some dissenters, Mr Frydenberg said following the meeting that the policy had the “strong support of the party room”.
He called on Labor leader Bill Shorten and the states to support implementation of the NEG.
Mr Turnbull said energy prices were a common concern among MPs but he pledged to use “every single lever available to us to bring down energy prices”.
SHARRI MARKSON DISCUSSES PARTY ROOM MEETING:
He said that the government would move to legislate the Paris emissions reduction target of 26 per cent before the end of the sitting fortnight.
Earlier, a rebel group led by Mr Abbott and Barnaby Joyce, said they believed locking in the Paris agreement would be “toxic”.
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But Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said any bid to abandon the Paris agreement would have a series of repercussions.
“I’m trade minister and we’re currently in negotiations with the European Union on a free-trade agreement,” he told Sky News.
“I can tell you one of the very first consequences if we were to adopt that approach (to pull out) is we could kiss goodbye on a trade agreement with Europe.”
Cyber Security Minister Angus Taylor criticised both sides of the debate for focusing on “virtue signalling around different technologies”.
He said he believed the NEG along with the government's suite of power policies including its gas strategy and the ACCC recommendations would bring down prices.
“The great problem with this debate hasn’t been focused on outcome. What we need to do and what the NEG allows us to do is focus on outcomes,” he said.
“That’s why I’ve supported it all the way along.”
Last night in a Coalition backbench energy committee meeting Mr Abbott, Craig Kelly and Ken O’Dowd voted against the NEG going to the party room today for discussion, while Trent Zimmerman, Tim Wilson, Trevor Evans, Ted O’Brien, James Patterson, Steve Irons and Rowan Ramsay supported it.
Mr Joyce, Tony Pasin, Ian Macdonald, George Christensen and Bert van Manen were also present and expressed concerns but did not have the power to vote.
Their concerns were that the NEG did nothing to lower electricity prices, particularly before the federal election.
Starting in 2020, the NEG is designed to bring down energy bills by about $550 a year and requires retailers to source electricity that meets reliability and Paris Agreement emissions reduction targets.
The states will be asked to agree to a four-week consultation process. As well as rolling out the NEG, the Turnbull government is expected to underwrite new power generation projects, which could include coal-fired plants. This is in line with one of 56 Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recommendations to cut power prices.
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