Young Liberals stage energy revolt, demanding NEG be reinstated

Federal government told it must abandon ‘big stick’ intervention in the electricity sector if it hopes to win the election.

NSW Young Liberal president Harry Stutchbury.

The Young Liberals have launched a revolt against their senior Canberra counterparts, savaging the federal government’s “big stick” intervention in the electricity sector and calling for the resurrection of the national energy guarantee.

The Young Liberals, who claim to be the largest and most active youth political movement in the country, voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Liberals abandoning their controversial energy policy.

The proposed legislation includes divestiture powers as a last-ditch means of forcing down spiralling electricity prices and diluting the power of the big integrated generator retailers.

“The crux of the motion is that as Liberals we shouldn’t be breaking up power companies to lower prices,” NSW Young Liberal president Harry Stutchbury said. “It simply won’t work.”

The rejection of the “big stick” policy was passed with 70 per cent voting in favour of the motion at the Young Liberals’ annual meeting in Perth in late January. The NSW branch of the party is due to vote on the motion at a state meeting on February 19.

The federal government is facing pressure before an election to deliver on its promise of cuts to household power tariffs and convince big business its policies won’t deter investment after the popular national energy guarantee was axed last year.

The Young Liberals agreed at their annual meeting to seek removal of costly federal energy subsidies and reject the push to nationalise energy generation.

They agreed the government had erred in linking the market concentration of the big power players — Origin Energy, AGL Energy and EnergyAustralia — as a cause of high energy prices.

The Young Nationals also voted against the notion of government intervention to break up energy retailers, and called on the government to abolish planned price caps in the power market.

Mr Stutchbury said resurrecting Malcolm Turnbull’s national energy guarantee would give the Liberals a better chance of winning the election.

“People forget the NEG was supported by the vast majority of the Liberal partyroom, mining companies, big business and also the renewable industry,” he said.

The Young Liberal state president said he would seek meetings with Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg and Energy Minister Angus Taylor to discuss their stand, noting action needed to be taken before the election to reverse a decade of poor government policy.

“We’ve had 10 years of policy instability in this area and that has been a huge choke on investment,” Mr Stutchbury said.