Energy strategies at the forefront of pre-election battle
Political parties are rehearsing their energy policies as a prepation for the election, which may well turn out to be a referendum on nuclear power or a vindication of the renewables.
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have resumed Australia’s energy and climate wars with venom, pitting renewables against nuclear power, clashing over net zero by 2050 pathways, and promising their plans will provide cheaper and more reliable electricity.
Amid expectations of an early election, Labor and the Coalition are already locked in a campaign-style brawl to win the votes of households and business owners exhausted by the noise, tribalism and politics that has dominated energy policy for two decades.
The endless debate over energy and climate change – which is often esoteric, emotionally charged and highly technical – is a threat to Australia’s prosperity and security.
Instead of adopting a national approach, federal, state and territory governments have announced emissions-reduction and renewable-energy targets that aren’t aligned and have put at-risk the bipartisan aim of achieving net zero by 2050. Double speak and vested interests cloud a unified approach from key players and investors, fuelled by political parties and movements who promise high and underdeliver.
The Prime Minister’s “renewables revolution” – built on Labor’s target of 82 per cent renewables in the grid by 2030 – is not on track. The government’s 43 per cent emissions-reduction target by 2030, which is just over 66 months away, is also on a knife edge and is predicated on a suite of Labor policies that are still in their infancy.
With the Coalition holding back their energy and climate change policy, Albanese, Chris Bowen and senior Labor ministers have launched a full-court press in the past fortnight heaping pressure on Dutton and defending their interim emissions-reduction targets.
Albanese and Bowen have declared the election will be a “referendum on nuclear power”, accused Dutton of preparing to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement and mocked-up photos of idyllic locations to claim, without substance, that the Coalition will build nuclear reactors in coastal and regional electorates.
The Coalition, which has traditionally been divided into tribes that either support or vehemently oppose climate change action and emissions-reduction targets, is close to pulling the trigger on its election policy. The economic modelling and emissions trajectories are “well advanced” but Dutton will not be rushed by Albanese.
Dutton, who has so far managed to keep moderate Liberals and conservative Nationals in the tent, is focused on lowering power bills and guaranteeing energy supply for manufacturers and business to support jobs.
Labor’s broken election promise that household power bills would be slashed by $275 annually from 2025 will dominate Dutton’s campaign, with the Coalition telling voters their electricity bills have increased by $773.
The Coalition energy and climate policy will position gas in the short-term and nuclear power in the long-term to fast-track Australia’s path to net zero by 2050. Their modelling will show the emissions-reduction trajectory over 25 years. While attacking Bowen for being a “renewables zealot”, the Coalition plan will include a significant role for renewable energy alongside gas and nuclear as coal-fired power exits the grid.
The haphazard rollout of renewable energy projects across the country and failure to modernise the power grid and transmission lines has exposed Australians to blackouts and higher energy bills. Amid fears that more companies will offshore or mothball operations, businesses and manufacturers have warned they cannot compete globally without cheaper, reliable power.
The ideological war over the roles of fossil fuels, renewables and nuclear combined with NIMBYism and climate scepticism has left Australia vulnerable.
Community backlash against the rollout of offshore wind and transmission power lines in regional Australia, delays and cost blowouts on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project, questions about the viability of green hydrogen, and failure to build more peaker plants and unlock more of Australia’s rich gas reserves are major pressure points for Albanese and Bowen.
If Dutton pulled off a shock election victory, he would face similar problems and additional risks around locating, funding and building nuclear small modular reactors across Australia.
The political class’s obsession with near-term emissions-reduction targets is not shared by the majority of people struggling through the cost-of-living crisis.
Australians, many who support a cleaner future for next generations, want to be able to warm their homes, keep the lights on and stay open for business without being smashed by massive electricity and gas bills.