Daniel Andrews is playing shameless politics with the NEG

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

Daniel Andrews is playing shameless, petty politics with Australia’s energy future, delivering an 11th-hour list of demands despite being consulted for the better part of a year on the national energy guarantee framework.

Spooked by the Greens — who are likely to claim seats from Labor at November's Victorian election — and under pressure from GetUp!, Andrews is now demanding to move the goalposts, which he knows will trigger fresh chaos in the Coalition partyroom.

EXPLAINER: What is the NEG and how it would work?

Labor governments in Victoria (renewable energy target of 40 per cent by 2025), Queensland (50 per cent RET by 2030), and the ACT (100 per cent RET by 2020) have disregarded calls from Australia’s largest energy users, business leaders and energy lobby groups to establish a bipartisan commitment to deliver greater power certainty.

The Andrews government, which in its lurch to the Left banned gas development, clearly fears the Greens more than higher power prices.

And the ACT, which contributes next to nothing to the national electricity market, has positioned itself as the deal-breaker for Josh Frydenberg’s NEG. Climate Change Minister Shane Rattenbury, the leading Greens MP, shows little compassion for Canberrans paying record gas and power bills.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk — who relies on coal and gas to fund her spending promises and bankroll her public-servant payroll — postured on the NEG this week in a shameless attempt to heap pain on Malcolm Turnbull.

While Turnbull must get his own shop in order and win support from conservatives in his partyroom, Victorian Labor is ignoring the advice of the biggest employers and modelling endorsed by the ACCC to play last-minute politics for its own gain.