PM slams Anthony Albanese as ‘Bill Shorten 2.0’ for Labor’s uncosted net-zero emissions target

Scott Morrison seizes on Anthony Albanese’s first major policy announcement since the election, saying he was ‘just like’ his predecessor.

Scott Morrison has slammed Anthony Albanese as being “Bill Shorten 2.0’’ over his uncosted carbon-neutral target of net-zero emissions by 2050, declaring the Labor leader doesn’t have a plan to reach the target and can’t explain what his proposed energy transition will cost the nation.

The Prime Minister seized on Mr Albanese’s first major policy announcement since last year’s election on Friday, declaring the Labor leader was “just like” his predecessor in being unable to outline the costs of the party’s climate policies.
Labor’s stance on climate change was one of the key issues flagged in a review of the party’s disastrous election loss at the 2019 election.

“Anthony Albanese is just as much the Bill you couldn’t afford today as Bill Shorten was before,” Mr Morrison said. “Bill Shorten couldn’t tell you when he had a 45 per cent emissions reduction target, what it would cost, what jobs would be lost.

“Anthony Albanese is just Bill Shorten 2.0 when it comes to not being able to explain to you the cost of his policy.”

Delivering a speech in Melbourne on Friday, Mr Albanese also pledged that Labor will never use Kyoto carry-over credits and said a net-zero emissions target could have the potential to “result in higher wages, higher growth and lower energy costs”.

“In an important study the CSIRO found last year that net zero emissions by 2050 would result in higher wages, higher growth and lower energy costs and in recent months we had some foreshadowing of the costs of inaction and that’s before we see the carbon tariffs and other measures that are being promoted by many of our trading partners,” Mr Albanese said. “That’s why today I announce that a Labor Government will adopt the carbon neutral target of zero net emissions by the year 2050.”

The Morrison government plans to use carry-over credits to meet about half of Australia’s 2030 emissions reduction target of 26 to 28 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.

Speaking on ABC Radio on Friday, opposition climate and energy spokesman Mark Butler also failed to provide a ballpark figure for the cost of meeting Labor’s carbon-neutral target, but promised “no one will be left behind” under his party’s proposed energy transition.

Mr Butler told ABC Radio the horror bushfire season, as well as a mass bleaching event of the Great Barrier Reef, had made it clear to the Australian people the cost of “doing nothing.”

“What is clear, particularly after the summer of what we’ve had is the cost of doing nothing,” Mr Butler said. “We’re seeing more and more evidence of that in our own backyard from the bushfire emergencies.”

When pressed repeatedly about whether he had any concept of what it would cost to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, Mr Butler didn’t provide a figure.
“The idea we can talk about the cost of taking action without talking about the cost of not taking action is part of the problem with the debate about climate policy in this country,” Mr Butler said.

“We’ve had the CSIRO say that a net zero emissions path to 2050, compared to the path we’re currently on, would deliver stronger economic growth, would deliver high wages and would deliver lower energy bills.”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann warned Labor’s uncosted target could send jobs overseas, pushing global emissions up and damaging the economy.

“Making meaningless commitments without actually properly assessing what the economic cost is, the impact on jobs, the impact on power prices and the impact on emissions is extremist and irresponsible,” he told Sky News.

More than 80 countries around the world have adopted the target, along with NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.

Senator Cormann lashed Labor’s announcement as “completely meaningless” unless they looked Australians in the eye and told them “how many of their jobs you are sending overseas.”

He said the government would identify long-term emissions targets in time for an international climate conference in November.

Mr Butler didn’t rule out the introduction of packages for communities that might lose jobs during an energy transition.

“I don’t think anyone out there would want me simply to sit down with a pad of paper and write a policy without talking to them,” he said. “We’re very focused on making sure that no one is left behind in the transformation of our economy.”

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Butler’s colleague and Labor Deputy Leader Richard Marles said Labor’s net-zero target was “about jobs.”

“We are talking about building renewable energy, that involves investment … which equals jobs.”