Albanese is running out of time to get energy in order

The Albanese government fell into government three years ago aided by a public thirst for action on climate change and a new approach to energy. These former strengths for Labor are not looking so positive anymore. As was always likely, when ambition collides with costs, the hip pocket wins. Labor stands accused of having sold a false narrative on the cost of the energy transition and its ability to deliver environmental reform. Weeks out from an election being called, the scorecard is bleak. Household financial stress is at an all-time high because a misallocation of federal funds has made the Reserve Bank’s job of taming inflation more difficult.

Major industry groups are starting to speak out about the punishing costs of energy on business. The so-called nature-positive legislation, Labor’s signature environmental policy, has been abandoned and the hydrogen boondoggle that was supposed to provide the reliable, always-on power of the future is fast becoming an orphan, with the private sector judging it too costly and risky. The Queensland LNP government has pulled state funding from construction of the $12.5bn hydrogen plant and pipeline in Gladstone that had been championed by its Labor predecessor.

On Monday, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar called on Labor to revisit its 82 per cent renewable energy target and prioritise exploration, extraction and generation of natural gas. It followed the call by the peak food industry lobby, the Independent Food Distributors Australia, for the federal government to urgently address the impact of its climate policies on energy prices and the cost of living. The IFDA told Labor to dump its 82 per cent renewables target and focus on gas and coal production to bring electricity prices down in the short term. IFDA chief executive Richard Forbes said what many voters are thinking: government policy is driving up the price of food and the cost of living.

Given the cost-of-living pressures, the federal government has always been vulnerable to a public campaign that joins the dots. This is a reality check that always was coming. It reflects a failure on the part of the political class to properly plan the energy transition and explain exactly what it would mean for those being asked to pay the bill. And it highlights the disconnect between what is said by the likes of Energy Minister Chris Bowen and his new energy tsar, Matt Kean, on the success of the renewable energy rollout and the lived experience of those on the ground.

The federal government is also getting a reality check on its nature-positive plans, which reportedly were pulled from the final sitting week of parliament at Anthony Albanese’s insistence. This puts a final nail in the coffin of environment group demands for a federal Environmental Protection Agency in this term of parliament. This is a good thing because it is more than likely the body would quickly become a Trojan horse through which environment groups and bureaucracy could add further delay to the development of much-needed projects.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek was unable to bring a sensible compromise to the laws, which started out with broad support given the aim was to speed development decision-making. The laws were opposed by the West Australian government, big business and miners who already had been badly bitten by the Albanese government’s industrial relations law changes that threaten to take workplace practices and flexibility in the mining sector back decades. A lot has changed since Labor swept to power with the Greens and teals. The next election will be a timely opportunity for voters to pass judgment on how things are progressing. Plain speaking on energy has been badly missing. Domestic policy has not kept up with what is happening in other parts of the world. The IFDA and ACCI interventions are a welcome first sign that public debate on the issue during the election season is going to get a whole lot more interesting.