Stunt rider Abbott hopes to celebrate Turnbull’s 30th in Latrobe Valley

Tony Abbott will cycle through Latrobe Valley following next week’s anticipated 30th losing Newspoll for Malcolm Turnbull.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott leaves after Question Time. Picture: AAP

Tony Abbott will cycle through Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, the site of the now-closed Hazelwood coal-fired power station, following next week’s widely anticipated 30th consecutive Newspoll defeat for Malcolm Turnbull.

The former prime minister, who backs the immediate replacement of ageing coal-fired power plants, is a supporter of a new grouping within the Coalition dubbed the Monash Forum which is urging the government to provide up to $4 billion of taxpayers’ money to build “Hazelwood 2.0”.

Mr Abbott’s participation in the 21st annual Pollie Pedal will give him the opportunity to ramp up his pro-coal campaign following the Newspoll result as he passes through the Latrobe Valley, which he yesterday described as a “wonderful source of cheap reliable power”.

When he ousted Mr Abbott from the top job in September 2015, Mr Turnbull cited the loss of 30 consecutive Newspolls as a key justification. Some MPs now argue the Monash Forum is part of a co-ordinated attempt to undermine the government as it approaches the key benchmark.

Speaking on 2GB radio yesterday, Mr Abbott said the government needed to “keep our existing coal-fired power plants going” if Australia wanted to enjoy “affordable and reliable baseload power”.

“We are going to have to replace them sooner or later, and there’s no better time to start than now,” he said.

Scott Morrison yesterday slapped down Monash Forum’s demands, arguing the cost of buying power from a new clean-coal plant could be twice as expensive as that from an old coal-fired power station.

The Treasurer took to Twitter to say he had “no issue with coal-fired power stations” and argued they should be kept open for “as long as possible”.

“But any new ones have to make economic sense. Where they can make new coal-fired power stations work, good luck to them,” he said.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan, who will visit the Liddell coal-fired power station tomorrow, welcomed the Monash Forum’s support for coal but rejected the use of taxpayer funds for new plants.

“I don’t think coal needs subsidies. It doesn’t need government grants or investment,” he told Sky News. “It competes on its own two feet and if we just allow the market to work — and that’s what the government wants to do — and end a lot of the subsidisation of other types of energy, coal-fired power will work.”

NSW Liberal MP and chair the Coalition’s backbench committee on energy and the environment, Craig Kelly, yesterday challenged Mr Morrison’s criticisms about the cost of power from new clean-coal power plants.