Ex-resources minister Matt Canavan says Scott Morrison is wrong to focus on costly gas

Matt Canavan has compared Scott Morrison’s gas plan with actions taken by Jay Weatherill following SA’s 2016 blackouts.

Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan. Picture: Sean Davey

Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan has compared the Morrison government’s gas plan with actions taken by former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill following the state’s 2016 blackouts.

The former resources minister, who served under Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull between 2016 and 2020, says Mr Weatherill’s decisions led to high power prices in the state and warns that “copying the policies of South Australia” will not reverse the country’s shrinking manufacturing industry.

Writing in The Australian on Monday, Senator Canavan says the government’s decision to support a 1000MW gas-fired power plant in the Hunter Valley to replace the retiring Liddell coal station is “very similar to that of the South Australian government”.

“The plan is to replace the Liddell coal-fired power station with a gas-fired plant in the Hunter Valley backed by renewables and the pumped hydro from Snowy 2.0,” Senator Canavan writes.

“There is no reason to expect different results from South ­Australia. The plan will keep the lights on but it is unlikely to lower energy prices to the levels needed to bring manufacturing back to Australia.”

Senator Canavan says the Morrison government did not proceed with an application from Delta Electricity to build a new High Efficiency, Low Emission coal plant because the “view was coal would be unpopular”.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor on Tuesday will release the government’s final technology investment roadmap, which lists coal as a mature technology alongside gas, solar and wind.

In a National Press Club speech, Mr Taylor will say “there is no doubt that existing, proven technologies like coal, gas, solar and wind will play important roles in Australia’s energy future”.

“The government will continue to invest in mature technologies where there is a clear market failure, like a shortage of dispatchable generation,” Mr Taylor will say. “Australia’s competitive advantage has always been based on cheap energy. Gas will be central to our ongoing recovery, while coal continues to play an enormously important role in our energy system.”

Senator Canavan says after the SA blackouts, the Weatherill Labor government decided to spend $360m on a new gas power plant instead of supporting a $25m extension of the Northern coal-fired station.

“The Jay Weatherill plan kept the lights on but SA’s power prices are some of the highest in the world. This is because gas prices are high in Australia and the gas power station only works part of the time. That means capital costs are spread over a small amount of power, pushing up the average price of the electricity,” he says.

The Rockhampton-based senator, who led the successful anti-Labor coal campaign at last year’s federal election, says to get prices down as low as possible the government must focus on energy sources that we “have a natural advantage in, and that is not gas”.