Coalition unrest gains momentum over Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s national energy policy
COALITION unrest on energy policy appears to have gained momentum over the weekend, with more MPs flagging concerns about Malcolm Turnbull’s last-minute changes.
NSW
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COALITION unrest on energy policy appears to have gained momentum over the weekend, with more MPs flagging concerns about Malcolm Turnbull’s last-minute changes.
Sources said the Prime Minister was panicking while Tony Abbott ramped up his attack despite Mr Turnbull agreeing to implement the 26 per cent emissions reduction target by regulation instead of making it law.
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Emissions targets that made sense three years ago when all countries were supposed to be in Paris and we didn’t need policy change and wouldn’t face economic dislocation do not make sense now. @TurnbullMalcolm take note.
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) 19 August 2018
“Emissions targets that made sense three years ago when all countries were supposed to be in Paris and we didn’t need policy change and wouldn’t face economic dislocation do not make sense now. @TurnbullMalcolm take note,” tweeted Mr Abbott.
To further win over conservatives in the party room, Mr Turnbull has announced an electricity “price expectation” which would be the maximum an energy retailer could charge and act as a cap on household and business electricity bills.
The Daily Telegraph understands the government was also considering giving the AER additional powers to investigate energy giants which own both generators and retail arms to ensure they were not inflating wholesale prices.
But a government source close to the policy design questioned the Prime Minister’s knee-jerk reaction to disaffected backbenchers.
“If the response is too dramatic it makes it looks like there’s a panic and that’s exactly what it looks like,” the source said.
The Daily Telegraph understand frontbencher David Gillespie has joined fellow Nationals MP Keith Pitt in considering his position as an assistant minister given his concerns with the NEG.
NSW National Andrew Gee remained unconvinced and was still reserving his right to cross the floor. “People have had a gutful of soaring power prices,” he said.
“I haven’t been provided with a copy of the original legislation proposed and besides what I’ve read in the paper, I haven’t been briefed on any details.”
Chair of the energy backbench committee Craig Kelly said he was “still waiting to see the details on NEG 1.0 and now it seems like we have NEG 2.0”.
“But it sounds like this would allow a future Labor government to increase emissions targets without taking it to the Parliament. If that’s the case it will be a definite no from me,” he said.
Victorian MP Sarah Henderson said the government needed to hit energy companies with a bigger stick. “We need powers of divestment so that companies which game the system … can be forced to divest assets,” she said.
A senior moderate conceded there would be no way of making all the dissenters happy because “some of them just want a fight”.
“It’s not walking away from Paris because that’s just something we can’t do,” the MP said.