HARD RIGHT LEADING TURNBULL’S ENERGY POLICY

Today’s news that the fossils in the hard right of the Coalition party room have formed an action group to put pressure on Malcolm Turnbull to build new coal-fired power stations at taxpayer expense exemplifies how chaotic energy policy has become the Liberals.

 

The energy industry has been clear they have no appetite for building new coal-fired power stations. Matthew Warren, chief executive of the Australian Energy Council has said the building of new coal-fired power stations is “uninvestable” and “unbankable”, a view widely shared by independent experts. 

 

In justifying taxpayer support for new coal plants, Government MPs claim if the Government can support Snowy 2.0 it should also support new coal power. The inconsistency and chaos of this position is demonstrated by Snowy Hydro themselves, who recently confirmed in Senate Estimates building new coal-fired power stations would put the viability of Snowy 2.0 at risk saying “if we have a reversion to the past, then Snowy 2 is not viable”.

 

New coal is more expensive and more polluting than alternatives, yet the hard right want to waste taxpayers money on their coal fantasies demanding Malcolm Turnbull to guarantee new investment in coal-fired power.  

 

This is a test of Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership, but given his track record of failing to stand up to the hard right of his party room and caving in on two energy policies, no one should be surprised if he caved into the hard right fossils again.

 

Malcolm Turnbull’s inability to rein in his party room exemplifies the chaos which has surrounded his leadership over the energy crisis. All while household and business power bills continue to skyrocket, while pollution under this out of touch government continues to go up, and up, and up.

 Only Labor can deliver energy policy certainty that will drive new investment, deliver affordable power and bring down carbon pollution.