Barnaby Joyce joins insurrection seeking ‘Hazelwood 2.0’

Barnaby Joyce has joined a backbench insurrection to pressure the government into building a $4bn ‘Hazelwood 2.0’.

Barnaby Joyce has signed up to the newly established Monash Forum.

Barnaby Joyce has lashed out at Malcolm Turnbull’s signature energy policy and rejected assurances it was “technology agnostic”, as he joined a backbench insurrection to pressure the government into building a $4 billion “Hazelwood 2.0” coal-fired power station.

In his first major criticism of government policy since standing down as deputy prime minister in February, Mr Joyce told The Australian he had signed up to the newly established Monash Forum because he wanted to make “absolutely certain” that the national energy guarantee delivered new coal-fired power stations. “I was aware of it and I signed it; it would have been remarkable if I hadn’t,” Mr Joyce said. “HELE (high-efficiency, low-emissions) coal-fired power plants are not the Dickensian dark satanic mills of many a year ago.”

The Australian can reveal the Monash Forum has signed up 20 members — including some frontbenchers — and is supported by another 10 MPs who have refrained from lending their signatures to the document, which was authored by Victorian Liberal MP Kevin Andrews.

The forum — supported by Tony Abbott and Eric Abetz — is urging the government to build a $4bn power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, keep the Liddell power station in NSW open beyond 2022 and explore further sites for coal-fired power plants.

Some moderate MPs were furious at the emergence of the ginger group — revealed by The Australian on Monday — and argued it looked like a stalking horse to destabilise the Prime Minister’s leadership while derailing attempts to secure agreement for the NEG at a meeting of state and territory energy ministers later this month.

“I feel like I am in the Greens,” one MP said. “I am convinced they would prefer to be in opposition.”

Mr Joyce, who earlier this year labelled comments by the Prime Minister as “inept” when he was fighting to hold on to the Nationals leadership amid the scandal over his affair with a staffer, denied the Monash Forum was a vehicle to threaten Mr Turnbull’s leadership. The co-ordinated push to ­elevate coal-fired power comes as Mr Turnbull this month confronts the likelihood of his 30th Newspoll defeat.

 

Mr Turnbull said yesterday his energy policy was “technology ­agnostic” and gave an incentive for the energy sector to invest in baseload power. Mr Joyce accused the government of double standards for building Snowy Hydro 2.0 but not investing in new coal-fired power generation. “It’s like saying ‘I’m agnostic about religion as long as it was founded in Japan, China or India’, which means of course that you’re not agnostic,” Mr Joyce said. “If they were truly technology agnostic we wouldn’t be complying with the international caveats (under the Paris Agreement) of having to bring renewable energy onto the grid … We are manipulating the market to get renewable energy onto the market.”

Mr Joyce said assurances from Mr Turnbull and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg that the government was neutral on the issue of new coal-fired power were “completely paradoxical”.

Labor seized on the Coalition divisions to warn the new grouping was aimed at “putting the Prime Minister on notice”.

Mr Turnbull dismissed concerns that the forum was an attack on his leadership, claiming the NEG had the support of the partyroom and was a market-based ­policy designed by the Energy Security Board. “Those who are concerned that there should be more investment in coal-fired power stations, the national energy guarantee puts a premium on dispatchability, 24/7 power. Now coal can obviously provide that, so can gas, so can hydro, so can other technologies,” he said.

Mr Frydenberg said the NEG would give market certainty to private companies that wanted to invest in coal, but stopped short of saying the government would help stump up finance for a new power station.

“I would want the market to receive the right signals as to where they should be investing and right now there are not those right market signals,” he said. “I am not pro-coal or anti-coal, I am not pro or anti-renewables, but I am in favour of lower energy prices and a more reliable industry.”

Senior cabinet ministers refused to criticise the ginger group yesterday. Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said the proposals were worth considering and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton commended the group for generating ideas on lowering power prices. Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne would not rule out the government financing the construction on a new power plant.

Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler said the government should rule out giving subsidies to coal-fired power plants. “This very substantial ginger group led by Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce indicates that there are probably very significant rocky roads ahead for the Coalition partyroom,” he said.

The Australian has confirmed that some frontbenchers including Keith Pitt — assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister — have signed up to the document, which is also supported by Nicolle Flint, Rick Wilson and John Williams.

“Everyone that’s in the parliament wants lower prices for energy,” Mr Pitt told The Australian. “This is, in my view a group of commonsense people looking for some practical outcomes.”

Mr Wilson said the group had nothing to do with leadership. “In fact it essentially supports the national energy guarantee and we just want to see coal as part of that guarantee, we want to see the cheapest possible and most reliable energy generation sources and it is a group that believes coal has a place in that,” he said.