Malcolm Turnbull quashes push by Tony Abbott for special Coalition meeting on energy policy

Malcolm Turnbull has rejected Tony Abbott’s demand for a special party room meeting to thrash out the national energy guarantee.

Tony Abbott arrives for a business leaders meeting with Coalition backbenchers about the National Energy Guarantee at Parliament House in Canberra.

Malcolm Turnbull has shut down a proposal from Tony Abbott to hold a special meeting of the joint party room to allow Coalition MPs to discuss the details of the national energy guarantee before the policy goes to COAG in August.

The Prime Minister rejected the idea, arguing that the issue had already been canvassed by the party room and would be dealt with in the usual process.

The joint party room meeting came after Mr Abbott intensified his threat to cross the floor and vote against the government over the final design of NEG. The former prime minister left a crucial meeting in Canberra between business leaders and Coalition MPs this morning saying he was yet to be convinced by the NEG.

There were at least nine MPs who spoke on energy policy in the party room meeting including Mr Abbott, Tony Pasin, Craig Kelly, Julia Banks, Ann Sudmalis, Richard Colbeck, Barnaby Joyce, Eric Abetz and Jason Falinski.

Some MPs including Mr Kelly asked about how the demand obligation requirement would work for the 100 biggest energy users, while other MPs including Mr Joyce issued a reminder that any policy should drive down prices for households.

Mr Pasin told that the joint party room meeting that the government should aim to establish a target for wholesale energy prices. The Australian understands he suggested a target of about $60/MWh in order for Australia to remain internationally competitive.

Some MPs including Ms Sudmalis and Ms Banks pushed for the national energy guarantee policy to be finalised in order to deliver certainty for the market.

Senator Abetz sounded the alarm on Labor’s emissions reduction target of 45 per cent, saying it was an “economy wrecking” policy.

The discussion on energy policy was said to have begun at 11:30am — about the same time as last week’s joint party room meeting — and lasted for about 30 minutes.

As reported in The Australian last week, Mr Abbott restated this morning that he would not vote with the government if he thought the energy policy would be bad for the country.

“I have an obligation to keep faith with the position that the government took to the people in 2013,” Mr Abbott said after his meeting with business leaders.

“Don’t forget what we took to the people in 2013, that the people overwhelmingly endorsed was scrapping the carbon tax as part of ending Labor’s emissions obsession.

“Now my anxiety about the national energy guarantee is that it is more about reducing emissions more than it is about reducing prices.”

Mr Abbott has held out the prospect of MPs crossing the floor to oppose the NEG unless it allows for the entry of new coal-fired power plants. He has accused the Prime Minister of trying to stifle discussion of the topic in last week’s joint party room meeting.

Last week Mr Abbott repeatedly refused to rule out crossing the floor saying Coalition MPs could not “be expected to support a policy that will continue to drive prices up”.

“I really do hope that it’s not going to come to that. But I do think that the executive government needs to understand that you can’t take the party room for granted,” he told 2GB.

“I think there’s been a bit of that — a bit of taking the party room for granted.

“For instance, the Prime Minister has developed this practice of discussing legislation at enormous length at every party room meeting before we actually get to backbenchers’ questions and comments.

“Now this is completely unprecedented. When John Howard was the leader, when I was the leader, when Malcolm Turnbull was the leader the last time around, when Brendan Nelson was the leader we always went straight from the leadership statement to the backbench questions and comments.”

Coalition MPs have been told a plan to bring on extra base-load power through either new coal or gas is being drafted by Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg as an “add-on” energy policy to the NEG, in a move that will lock in future supply and head off any ­potential internal government ­rebellion.

A senior government source last night confirmed that Mr Frydenberg had assured colleagues that he would address concerns about the NEG and the lack of support for coal.

Resources Minister and Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan yesterday defended the NEG on Sky News, saying it would provide reliable supply and help Australia meet its Paris commitments to achieve emissions ­reductions of 26 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.

However, he also said it was “really important, of course, that we keep coal as an option”.

Senator Canavan added that he was “quite confident” that coal- fired power stations would continue to be an option into the ­future, arguing they would be ­accommodated by the NEG.