Coal could keep Turnbull in the Lodge if he plays his cards right

TURNBULL is boosting the government’s morale with his coal rhetoric. Now he must match it with tough policy that’s sharply different to Labor’s, writes Peta Credlin.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull tells the media he has sought advice on how to extend the life of a number of coal-fired power stations which are scheduled to close over coming decades. (Pic: Lukas Coch/AAP)

IT seems unlikely: the man who lost his leadership over climate change becoming a campaigner for coal — but this is the transition that Malcolm Turnbull started this week and if he keeps it up, it just might save his prime ministership.

For it to work though, he can’t just criticise Labor for wanting even more renewables than the government.

He must go further and dump the proposed Clean Energy Target, freeze the current Renewable Energy Target and not just talk about keeping old coal-fired power stations open; he must start getting some new ones built.

In other words, as his predecessor said this week, he’s got to stop talking about renewable energy and start focusing on reliable energy because only a 100 per cent reliable energy target will do.

Australia is responsible for around 1.4 per cent of global emissions so it beggars belief that we’ve got the world’s highest power prices yet the most coal, gas and uranium.

It doesn’t add up and ordinary people know it despite what the green religion zealots try and tell them to think.

Having a big fight with the virtue-signalling, price-gouging power company AGL should help the Prime Minister.

This week in parliament he claimed that the government was in talks with AGL about extending the life of the NSW’s Liddell power station, the next big power domino to fall, slated to close in just five years’ time.

“No you’re not”, said AGL’s $7 million a year boss, Andy Vesey, who’s been boasting about getting out of coal while pocketing the profits that a coal-starved power market has been delivering to power generators.

This is the second time that a commercial player has put Australia’s energy security at risk to impress left-wing activists and boost its profits at the same time.

AGL CEO Andy Vesey listens to PM Malcolm Turnbull in a meeting with energy retailers, Treasurer Scott Morrison and Minister for the Environment and Energy Josh Frydenberg at Parliament House. (Pic: Kym Smith)

In March, the part-French-government-owned Engie closed down the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria and boasted it was getting out of the world’s “dirtiest” power station while conveniently boosting the value of its other power stations, and massively increasing the wholesale price it received for its power.

It’s one of the first times foreign ownership has put our national interests at risk and it wasn’t a Chinese company but our supposed friends, the French (the same nation we’re spending $89 billion to buy new submarines from, I might add).

Now, AGL, an Australian-owned company with an American boss, and a whole lot of local leftie activists on the staff, is doing the same thing.

In bludgeoning AGL to keep this vital national asset going or sell it to someone who will, Turnbull could usefully tell business to stop employing people who despise capitalism and work against the people who support it (and so should customers and shareholders too).

In parliament this week, the Prime Minister’s attacks on Labor were effective.

His “no coal Joel” line against the ALP frontbencher representing the Hunter Valley coal districts boosted Coalition morale. But, a good line aside, the challenge will be for the PM to come up with more than debater’s rhetoric; he must come up with a policy to set against Labor.

Malcolm Turnbull wants the Liddell power station in the Hunter Valley of NSW to continue operating beyond it’s scheduled final five years. (Pic: News Corp)

If he can overcome his own green obsessions, stop talking about the Snowy 2.0 pipe dream, and create a sharp policy difference with Labor, he can still win the next election on the most reliable basis of all — the hip pocket nerve — which is hurting every time we get a power bill. But to survive, and win, Turnbull’s got to do more than just drag in the power chiefs, and rant and rave.

If all he can achieve is a commitment that they will write to consumers, he might as well hand Shorten the keys to The Lodge now and save us all 18 months of political spin.

What the Coalition needs is a policy that’s sharply different from Labor; and 42 per cent renewables by 2030, versus Labor’s 50 per cent, just won’t cut it — because renewables are what’s destabilising the system and putting at risk our future as a first world economy.

This week, the Australian Energy Market Operator finally sounded the alarm. After playing Pollyanna earlier when Hazelwood closed, AEMO now predicts a serious power shortfall for Victoria and South Australia this summer with the potential for widespread factory shut downs and blackouts.

If and when that happens, no one will blame the AEMO. Does anyone even know the name of that body’s head? This is the problem with outsourcing decisions to faceless “experts”.

No, if the lights go out this summer it will be the government and the Prime Minister that will get the blame.

If, on the other hand, he grows a spine and dumps the RET as well as the CET, and promises next generation coal-fired power, he gets one last chance to become the leader he says he’s always wanted to be.