Albanese says energy market has changed since carbon tax floated
Energy Minister Angus Taylor welcomes Labor support for technology roadmap but says Coalition will not move on taxation.
Anthony Albanese has declared that Labor’s decade-old carbon price policy is now outdated.
The Opposition Leader said after his National Press Club address on Wednesday that global circumstances have changed since Kevin Rudd first tried to legislate one after the 2007 election, and Labor would not pursue a market mechanism in that form.
“The thing about where we were in 2007 and indeed that policy was written under Kim Beazley, is that renewables at that time needed support in terms of a market-based mechanism,” he said.
“The fact is that the cheapest form of new energy in this country is renewables. It’s solar and wind. The circumstances have changed.
“If you ask are we going back to the old system, the answer to that is no. We’re looking forward, not backwards.”
But Mr Albanese said he would not accept the use of Kyoto carryover credits to meet Australia’s carbon emissions targets under the Paris Agreement, despite calling for an end to the energy wars.
The use of Kyoto credits is a “rort” and it will not be part of negotiations for a post-COVID energy framework, Mr Albanese said.
“Yes, it’s a rort. If it looks like a rort and sounds like a rort it is. And that’s why the rest of the world is saying no to carry over credits,” Mr Albanese told the National Press Club.
“ I mean there’s some irony I’ve got to say in a government that completely opposed ratifying
Kyoto — and was opposed to what Labor put in place — saying we want to use those credits when we had an energy policy in order to make up for the fact that we don’t.”
A number of countries including New Zealand are using Kyoto carryover credits to meet Paris targets.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor the government welcomed Labor’s support for their technology roadmap, but accused Mr Albanese of not ruling out a future carbon tax.
“We welcome the fact Labor has embraced our technology roadmap, great news, and we will continue to listen and talk to focus on those core principles,” he said.
“Our focus is clear, it is technology, not taxation.
“We heard the Leader of the Opposition today a number of times fail to rule out a carbon tax, and that has been the favoured policy position of the Labor government time and time again, whether it’s an explicit one or sneaky one.”
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