Tony Abbott wants end to subsidies for renewable energy, prohibition on nuclear power lifted

Tony Abbott has called for the scrapping of subsidies for renewable energy and an end to the prohibition on nuclear power in Australia.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott. Picture: AAP

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called for the scrapping of subsidies for renewable energy and an end to the prohibition on nuclear power in Australia.

Speaking at the Spectator Anglo-Australian Forum in Sydney this morning Mr Abbott said subsidising “dirt cheap” but unreliable renewables was distorting the energy industry which still relied primarily on coal fuelled power.

Any renewables coming into the system, he said, should also be forced to guarantee 24/7 power delivery.

Mr Abbott said it was time to lift the ban on nuclear energy. He conceded Australia had held a strong anti-nuke position since 1988, but it was Labor Party policy that did not have the given support from the Liberal Party.

“It shouldn’t be ruled out simply because its nuclear,’’ he said.

Also speaking at the forum, British politician and self-styled “Brexit bad boy” Nigel Farage warned if Britain is forced into a second referendum on leaving the EU it will trigger voter “anger we have not seen in our lifetime … a complete breakdown of trust in our established political system”.

Mr Farage, a former leader of the right wing UK Independence Party (UKIP), was speaking as part of his week long whistle top tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Brexit, he said, “was just the first shot in a ‘global revolution’..and you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May. Picture: Getty Images

He said British Prime Minister Theresa May — “the worst PM I have seen in my lifetime” — had betrayed the will of the people by trying to lock the country into the so-called ‘Chequers Deal’ which would continue to tether Britain to European trade.

“Firstly it will limit our ability to do free trade deals with countries like Australia,” Mr Farage told guests at the Spectator Anglo-Australian Forum in Sydney this morning.

“We are also sending the wrong messages. Mrs May doesn’t want a simple trade deal … she’s the problem, not Brexit itself.”

Mr Farage said Brexit had been “an earthquake” and its after effects were still being felt across the world. But he said the political class of Westminster had failed to grasp the message and remained “out of touch with the voters feelings of middle England”.

Nigel Farage, British politician and face of Brexit. Picture: AAP

Mr Abbott told the forum despite being a Brexit sceptic at the time, he had been wrong.

“I cheered the day the results started coming through because … Britain was back … this once great power of the world would once again speak in a clear voice”

He said the EU’s hostility towards Britain was clearly demonstrated in its subsequent attempts “to punish Britain to have the temerity to want to stand on its own two feet.”

He said he remained “mystified why the British Government had twisted itself into knots” in its dealings with the EU.

“I say … thank God the EU will no longer be telling Britain what it can and can’t do in the rest of the world.”

Mr Abbott said he welcomed the prospect of a renewed trading relationship between Australia and Britain as the two countries had always been “family”.

Highly skilled British workers who “could genuinely make a contribution to the country”

would be very welcome, he said, as long as they did not displace local workers.

“I am not suggesting a Glaswegian skin head can just come and go to Bondi,” he said.

“We all know how much good Britains can to here and Australians can do there.”