Abbott’s anti-NEG stance is too little too late

TAKING aim at Malcolm Turnbull is nothing new for Tony Abbott, but he seems to forget that he had the chance to make real change and did nothing, writes Miranda Devine.

WHEN former Prime Minister Tony Abbott made an appearance on the ABC’s 730 program on Monday night in a last-ditch attempt to reclaim his stolen throne, he made a curious admission.

Not once, but twice, he described Coalition MPS as his “former colleagues”.

Most of them probably wish they were these days, because whatever he’s doing, it’s not helping the government win the next election.

He has been playing Opposition Leader against his own party, more effectively than Bill Shorten, even when it has meant jettisoning every notion of loyalty and teamwork.

Yesterday, he was the most vocal of a minority of about 10-12 conservative MPs who expressed concern about the National Energy Guarantee, some of whom have reserved the right to cross the floor against it.

Abbott issued a statement straight after the meeting which described explanations of the NEG as “merchant bankers’ gobbledygook”.

Abbott displaying his personal animus to Malcolm Turnbull at this crucial juncture doesn’t help. (Pic: Kym Smith)

Displaying his personal animus to Malcolm Turnbull at this crucial juncture doesn’t help conservative MPs trying to convince the Prime Minister and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg to make the policy more palatable to their constituents.

The Prime Minister may feel since he won the majority support of the party room for the policy that he has had a “great policy win”, as one newspaper put it yesterday.

But that is to underestimate the deep concerns of many rational Coalition voters about any policy that entrenches climate ideology into legislation.

The Prime Minister has offered a compromise by promising to adopt an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recommendation to underwrite a new clean coal/gas-fired or dispatchable power station.

But when he meets one-on-one with anti-NEG MPs in coming days he may realise he needs to do more to ensure the government isn’t seen as captive to climate voodoo and has a clear point of difference with Labor to take to the next election.

There’s no point having an elegant energy solution if it ends up neutralising a potent weapon against Labor.

Like it or not, Abbott has crafted a cut-through message which equates the NEG to the unloved Paris climate treaty.

Of course, it’s rank hypocrisy from the former PM. Abbott had a mandate at the 2013 election to end the climate madness, to be bold, effectively to do a Donald Trump.

But he squibbed it. Instead he appeased climate alarmists by legislating the Renewable Energy Target, committing Australia to the Paris climate agreement, pledging $200 million to the international Green Climate Fund and shovelling $3 billion into Direct Action which was just another green scheme pretending to lower the global temperature.

And yet now he’s expecting Malcolm Turnbull, who actually believes in climate action, to do what he didn’t do.

It’s a mess. Let’s hope the Coalition can manage to find a sensible way through but one that gives them a distinct advantage over Labor.