Tony Abbott contradicts himself on energy policy

Tony Abbott has been reminded of his support for a renewable energy target just two years ago by a conservative colleague.

Last week Tony Abbott described the targets as only “aspirations”. Picture: AAP

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has come under fire from a key conservative colleague over his remarks on energy policy in a sign of growing frustration at his calls for big changes to the policies he once espoused.

International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells reminded Mr Abbott of his support for a renewable energy target just two years ago, contradicting his calls for the scheme to be frozen today.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells: “He’s done an about-face on this”.

Senator Fierravanti-Wells, a senior conservative within the NSW branch of the Liberal Party, said the government was committed to the Paris agreement on climate change despite Mr Abbott’s remarks last week that the commitments were only “aspirational”.

“The Paris targets were an iron-clad agreement,” Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.

The minister said Mr Abbott was in “direct contradiction” to his own stance as prime minister two years ago, when the government set the target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 per cent by 2030 when compared against the levels of 2005.

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Mr Abbott called the 26 per cent target a “definite commitment” in August 2015 and said he believed that the 28 per cent figure could be achieved “under the policies we’ve got” and with no mention of further policies needed to get there.

Last week Mr Abbott described the targets as only “aspirations” and suggested a softer approach to ease the impact on electricity prices.

Senator Fierravanti-Wells, whose role includes negotiating with Pacific Island nations on their concerns about climate change, said the Australian target was a guarantee that had been

promulgated internationally.

“So to say it is aspirational and non-binding now is in direct contradiction to what then prime minister Abbott said,” she told ABC Radio on Monday night.

“We gave these commitments and they were agreed to by Prime Minister Abbott when he was prime minister.

“Now I respect Tony’s views as a former prime minister and now a backbencher … but this is a total about-face.

“It is an issue now for Tony — I mean, he’s done an about-face on this.”

Asked if Mr Abbott’s credibility was damaged, Senator Fierravanti-Wells said the key issue was the policy decided by government.

“Credibility is a very important commodity in politics and any former prime minister will be judged on what they’ve actually done when they were government, not on what they say they should have done or could have done subsequently,” she said.

“Now if Tony didn’t think the commitment to the Paris agreement was such a good thing, then 2015 was the time to have that discussion, 2015 was the time to say that rather than to give the iron-clad commitments that he gave on behalf of Australia in an international environment.”

Senator Fierravanti-Wells also called for the Coalition to work “as a team” to defeat Bill Shorten.

“I do take Tony on face value when he says he does not want to see Bill Shorten as prime minister, but now we need to work as a team,” she said.