Sparks fly in Turnbull’s energy war

Malcolm Turnbull re­ignites the Coalition’s energy wars amid revelations the former PM and Bill Shorten have held private phone talks on the NEG.

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull at the NSW Smart Energy Summit in Sydney yesterday. Picture: AAP

Malcolm Turnbull has embarrassed the government over ­energy by urging Scott Morrison to strike a deal with Labor, infuriating his former supporters within the Liberal Party and causing ­another distraction.

The former prime minister yesterday re­ignited the ­Coalition’s energy wars, attacking climate change deniers within the government and urging the Prime Minister to support the national energy guarantee, which was shelved in the dying days of Mr Turnbull’s leadership.

The Australian can reveal Mr Turnbull and Bill Shorten have held private phone conversations since the August leadership spill and are understood to have discussed the NEG, which Labor is attempting to revive.

Mr Morrison, who previously declared the “NEG is dead”, also came under pressure from Julie Bishop — Mr Turnbull’s former deputy — who spoke out in yesterday’s Coalition partyroom against the Prime Minister’s “big stick” energy laws, which would give the government powers to break up the assets of major power companies. Following Mr Shorten’s release last month of Labor’s energy policy, which included retaining the NEG, Ms Bishop and Mr Turnbull have publicly called on Mr Morrison to offer bipartisan support for the national energy framework.

Former allies of Mr Turnbull were incensed by the former prime minister’s intervention yesterday. North Queensland MP Warren Entsch, a supporter of the NEG, said the former prime minister “went to water” in negoti­ations with a handful of Liberal MPs and abandoned the policy.

Mr Entsch said it was unfair to ask Mr Morrison to resurrect the policy when Mr Turnbull lacked the bravery to defend it.

“I just listen to what he says and I shake my head in disbelief,” he said. “It just makes me spew when I see this. He scrambled the NEG because he didn’t have the courage to stand up to a few.”

A spokesman for Mr Shorten said last night that the pair had spoken shortly after the spill and that the Opposition Leader had thanked him for his service to the country, but would not confirm the nature of any subsequent conversations.

However, a source close to the Opposition Leader said they had spoken several times since the spill and the NEG had been raised.

A spokesman for Mr Turnbull said while the former prime minister and Mr Shorten had spoken on a number of occasions since the spill, nothing that was discussed could have been interpreted as helping Labor. He denied they had discussed the NEG.

It is understood the last time Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten spoke was in the week ­before the Wentworth by-­election.

Revelations about Mr Shorten’s contact with Mr Turnbull come a week after The Australian revealed the former prime minister had been messaging independent Kerryn Phelps, who won his former seat of Wentworth, plunging the Morrison government into minority government.

Mr Morrison has been forced to deal with a series of damaging interventions by his predecessor in recent weeks, headlined by his failed attempt to block the preselection of conservative Liberal MP Craig Kelly and calls for an early election.

Mr Turnbull’s spokesman said: “Mr Shorten called Mr Turnbull shortly after he ceased being prime minister to check in on him and the family. Naturally, the pair spoke regularly when Mr Turnbull was prime minister. Since leaving office, the pair seldom speak and no conversation could even be remotely regarded as assisting the Labor Party.”

Speaking in Sydney yesterday, Mr Turnbull blamed Coalition climate change deniers for the NEG’s failure and mocked his former colleagues for their commitment to new clean coal-fired power stations.

“There is a significant percentage of the Coalition members who do not believe that climate change is real, who believe that we should get out of Paris, for example, who would rather … the government, instead of building Snowy 2, build a new coal-fired power station,” he said.

“The people who hold those views have been — as you saw with the national energy guarantee — (they) are prepared to cross the floor, blow-up the government, in order to get their way.”

Mr Turnbull denied he abandoned the NEG. “In the frantic last week of my prime ministership, and the insurgency which of course undermined it and ultimately brought it to an end, the cabinet resolved not to introduce the legislation until we were confident we could secure its passage,” he said.

“I strongly encourage my colleagues to work together to revive the national energy guarantee … It was a vital piece of economic policy and it had strong support, none stronger than that of the current Prime Minister and the current Treasurer (Josh Frydenberg).”

The comments from Mr Turnbull were made at a conference hosted by the Smart Energy Council.

Mr Kelly, the Sydney MP whose preselection was targeted by Mr Turnbull at the weekend, disputed the former prime minister’s version of events. A prominent critic of the NEG and supporter of new clean coal plants, Mr Kelly said Mr Turnbull was responsible for dropping the NEG. “He’s rewriting history,” he said.

MPs who joined Ms Bishop in speaking out against the “big stick” policy included Craig Laundy, Jason Falinski and Russell Broadbent.