Daniel Andrews, Malcolm Turnbull engage in public slanging match

The PM and Daniel Andrews have taken potshots at each other during a lively day in state-federal relations.

Malcolm Turnbull and Daniel Andrews in happier times.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and the Prime Minister have exchanged verbal barbs on several issues during a lively day in state-federal political relations.

Mr Andrews lashed out at Malcolm Turnbull, accusing him of peddling “ignorant rubbish” over renewable energy after the South Australian power outage.

Mr Turnbull returned fire at the state Labor leader, using the pulpit of Melbourne radio to accuse Mr Andrews of being evasive over how his “very ambitious” target of 40 per cent renewable energy by 2025 would be achieved.

He also accused the Victorian government of using its federal counterpart as an ATM over top-up funds for the lease of Melbourne’s port.

The port lease sold for $9.7 billion and the state expected to get a 15 per cent top-up from the federal government’s asset recycling initiative to put into level crossing removals.

But instead the state will get $877 million to spend mainly on the Melbourne Metro Rail project.

Malcolm Turnbull said the state government was slow in asking for the funds, and called the subsequent response from the state government “highly political”.

“The Andrews government approach is that the federal government is just an Automatic Teller Machine,” he said.

“They resent us having any say or any involvement in any project.”

The Victorian government submitted an application one day before the June 30 deadline, and asked for the port lease sale funds to go to level crossing removals and not the metro rail project, which was already funded by the state. Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas has accused the federal government of “short- changing” the state.

As the fastest growing state in the nation and home to a quarter of all Australians, Victoria gets just nine per cent of federal infrastructure funding. Mr Turnbull says the government is still in negotiations with Victoria. “I’m determined that every part of Australia feels that they’re being fairly looked after,” he said.

“We’re in constant discussions with the state government.”

He said there is still $1.5 billion set aside for Victoria if it ever wants to build the East West Link toll road, which the Andrews government axed when it came into power.

Earlier, Mr Andrews, on ABC radio, said Mr Turnbull was “peddling ignorant rubbish, lecturing people about things he knows nothing about and conflating an extreme weather event … It seems like Tony Abbott is back.”

“We are the only jurisdiction in the developed world that had a price on carbon and got rid of it and had a renewable energy target and wound it back,” Mr Andrews said.

Mr Turnbull accused Mr Andrews of evading questions about how the state target would be realised.

“We have a national renewable energy target (23.5 per cent by 2020) which is responsible. It’s still a big stretch, I must say, to get there by 2020 but it is happening,” he told 3AW.

“What he (Mr Andrews) is doing is creating distortions in the market, doing one-off deals here and there that are distorting the electricity market and he’s doing it without regard to maintaining (energy) security.

Mr Turnbull said he was “very keen” on renewable energy, adding he had a “roof full of solar panels” on his Sydney home, but said high electricity prices in South Australia were dissuading business.

“Yes, we’ve got to reduce our emissions — that’s very important — but we have to maintain energy security and reliability and we have to maintain affordability,” he said.

“South Australia has some of the most expensive wholesale electricity in Australia … so employers there are saying ‘how are we going to maintain the jobs and get investment if we’ve got the highest price for electricity?”

Queensland’s acting energy minister Leeanne Enoch said her state was sticking to its target of 50 per cent by 2030.

“You never know which Malcolm Turnbull you’re going to get — are we going to get the renewable champion one day and then we’re going to get an almost climate denier the next day,” she said. “It’s bizarre.”

Institute of Public Affairs research director Brett Hogan called on the Victorian and South Australian premiers to “start taking some responsibility for the outcomes of their policies”.

“Electricity networks exist to provide affordable and reliable electricity. They don’t exist as a means to reduce carbon emissions,” he said.

“If an electricity network can’t provide cheap power, or can’t provide power at all, then there is clearly something wrong.”

Additional reporting: AAP