Blackout Bill Shorten could give Turnbull the energy boost he needs

The High Court is now front and centre in the politics of our country. Two decisions will have profound, far-reaching effects on the status of the government and Malcolm Turnbull. Mostly, as High Court decisions come and go, few of us notice or care. Suddenly all eyes, not to mention cameras and microphones, are trained on the court’s Melbourne building.

We must all wait for a month or two yet for the High Court to decide who should be taking their seats in the Australian parliament and who should be declared as ­improperly elected and forced to walk the plank. A growing number of MPs and senators has been referred to the High Court for this crucial determination. Most are in the Senate and can be replaced with little drama by the next person on their party ticket. Australia has recently witnessed the seamless replacement of two senators. Bob Day from South Australia and Rod Culleton from the West were replaced by the next on their party’s list without the slightest hint of drama or the spending of one useless dollar.

On the other decision just made by the High Court — to allow the government to proceed with the postal survey — we are guaranteed to spend more than $100 million. And we need not have had parliament simply done its job and voted on the issue.

The High Court’s decision was not what most academic lawyers thought would happen and it must have stunned the QCs, SCs and lawyers to whom I spoke earlier. Almost every one of them ­assured me the government would lose. Its policy, which was taken to the election, was to hold a real plebiscite, not a half-baked survey, after the next election in about two years. Now we have a ruling that parliamentary endorse­ment of the expenditure of $122m is urgent.

The decision was a huge relief for the Prime Minister. He was told during question time of his victory in the High Court and his demeanour changed immediately. There was a new spring in his step and during an answer on energy reliability he finally came close to acting like a real leader. In the midst of a fairly standard spray on the opposition, he actually came up with an Abbott-like pithy, effective line. He referred to Labor as the party of blackouts. ­Finally, he hit a nail on the head.

The one ray of light offered to his faltering leadership has been Labor’s truly awful energy policies. Under Mark Butler, Labor’s spokesman on energy, the opposition has walked further and further out on the ­renewables limb. There is now a virtual guarantee of more blackouts in South Australia (Butler’s home state) over the summer and a strong probability of blackouts in Victoria. Turnbull will have a really effective campaign pre­sented to him on a Labor-provided platter.

The energy policy in South Australia shows the folly of chasing the wonderful goal of ­renewable sources providing all of our power needs without waiting for the proven technology that would make that goal possible.

Between now and the federal election, Turnbull must make the blackout label stick to Labor. At a time when the Coalition would be flat out trying to convince the electorate there were real differences between it and the opposition — particularly given the growing number of disillusioned, disgruntled voters who simply wish that a plague would envelop the major parties — energy policy is simply Turnbull’s only hope.

I interviewed Newspoll boss David Briggs on my Sky News show on Wednesday night. Naturally you are always gratified when someone as knowledgeable as him backs your opinion.

Much was made by the media and the commentariat about the gap ­between the PM and Bill Shorten continuing to grow as demonstrated in Monday’s Newspoll. My view has been that this is — at present — the poll number on which I put the least value. That is because the punters don’t like ­either of them. If there was a visionary, charismatic leader in the race, they would be ­unbackable. Sadly no one even ­remotely resembling that description is about — they haven’t been for a decade.

The only way the Coalition can ensure that its primary vote goes back to 40 per cent or more is to find a point of difference on a policy that matters to voters. There is no more important issue to every segment of Australian society than the reliability of electricity supply and the price paid for it.

On the economy, Labor has been cautious and has presented a small target to a government hamstrung by its utter failure to rein in spending. Well directed by opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen, the debate over who is the better economic manager has been pretty much a draw and that is the best Labor can hope for.

Having wimped out of being the champion of small business by taking on the penalty rates issue, out there in the real world they just can’t see reason to vote for or to vote against either side of politics.

My advice to Turnbull, which by the way he tends to studiously avoid following, is to buy into the coal debate with gusto. When he answered the question to which I earlier referred, I was encouraged that the PM attacked Labor for going too far along the renewables road and ignoring coal-fired power.

There is an elitist cruelty about Labor’s energy policy. By not seeking to keep coal-fired power stations open for extended periods, it condemns thousands of workers to early retirement or years on the dole hoping for jobs that simply can’t be found in places such as the Hunter Valley. Even worse, there seems to be little concern for the weak and the frail who will not be able to afford airconditioning this summer, or will have no access to it because of brownouts and blackouts.

This summer will lay bare the weaknesses of Labor’s policy and you can bet London to a brick that Shorten will have to change tack. My advice to Bill is to modify his policy before he is forced to. A forlorn wish, I think.