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| Tony Abbott attacks 'merchant bankers' gobbledegook' after Turnbull's Neg win – politics live | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| After Alex passed on Mike Bowers’s fashion inspo yesterday (Craig Kelly is a massive sartorial hero of Bowers. Ask anyone), Bowers has returned the favour. (Alex is a vegan. There is legitimately only onions in this roll) | |
| Photographer @ellinghausen demonstrates onion roll eating @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus #politcslive pic.twitter.com/Ym04E93tId | |
| And so has the Climate Council (from its statement): | |
| Climate councillor and energy expert Greg Bourne said the federal government’s proposed policy was originally created as an alternative to a clean energy target with the aim of lowering greenhouse gas pollution levels, but had now been amended to the point of becoming totally unrecognisable as a climate and energy policy. | |
| “The national energy guarantee has been trimmed, pulled, poked and prodded to the point that we are now left with a weak and inadequate policy that fails across the board, especially when it comes to effectively tackling climate change,” he said. | |
| Bourne said should the Neg move through federal parliament, focus must then urgently be placed on developing strong and credible policies committed to cutting Australia’s rising greenhouse gas pollution levels across other sectors such as transport, industry and agriculture to tackle climate change. | |
| “Australia’s greenhouse gas pollution levels have increased for the past three consecutive years. Today, due to the federal government’s inability to put in place credible climate and energy policy, our greenhouse gas pollution levels (excluding land use) are close to all-time highs,” he said. | |
| “With the national energy guarantee locking in such woefully inadequate electricity sector emissions cuts of 26% by 2030, we can no longer expect the electricity sector to play its role in cutting pollution through transitioning to clean, affordable, low-cost renewable energy.” | |
| Bourne said that, excluding Australia’s biggest polluting sector, electricity, there are seven other major sectors responsible for the nation’s rising greenhouse gas pollution levels. These sectors are transport, stationary energy, agriculture, fugitive emissions, industrial processes, waste and land use. | |
| “Since 2005, greenhouse gas pollution has skyrocketed in some of these sectors, with transport up 22%, stationary energy up 18% and fugitive emissions up 42%,” he said. | |
| “By restricting the role of clean, low-cost, reliable, renewable energy, the Neg has now locked Australia in to a more challenging, more expensive path to effectively tackling climate change. | |
| “The Neg means we will now have to double-down on cutting greenhouse gas pollution in sectors like transport and agriculture in order to protect Australians from worsening extreme weather events, including severe heatwaves, bushfires, flooding and drought, driven by accelerating climate change.” | |
| Bourne urged states and territories to continue leading the charge on Australia’s transition to clean, affordable and reliable renewable energy, by implementing their strong policies to encourage renewable energy and storage. | |
| The IPA has made its position on the Neg clear (from its statement): | |
| “The national energy guarantee puts emissions reductions ahead of reliability and lower energy prices. It is disappointing that this bad policy has proceeded further today,” said Daniel Wild, research fellow at the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. | |
| “There is bipartisan support for energy policy which favours high-cost, intermittent, weather-dependent energy generation from wind and solar at the expense of low-cost, dispatchable energy generated from coal. | |
| “There is no policy or political reason why the government needs to reduce emissions. Emissions are coming down under the status quo. Government policy should just focus on lower prices, which means ending subsidies and regulatory favours to wind and solar, and cutting regulation and red tape on coal-fired power stations.” | |
| IPA research released yesterday estimated that the cost of Australia meeting its Paris climate agreement emissions reduction targets – which are embedded in the Neg – to be $52bn from 2018-2030. That is the equivalent to funding 22 new hospitals, 20 years’ worth of the Gonski 2.0 education funding and four years’ worth of the NDIS. | |
| “Following the emissions reduction requirements of the Paris climate agreement will impose significant and irreparable economic damage without delivering an environmental dividend,” Mr Wild said. | |
| “The immutable law of energy policy is lower emissions mean higher prices.” | |
| Goodness me, we are just a few minutes out from question time....you know what to do - predictions in the comments. | |
| Malcolm Turnbull said he would be happy to have the emissions reduction target debate with Labor at the next election, to which Mark Butler said: | |
| We agree on something then, because we are happy to have a strong debate within the community in the context of an election about the need for real ambition on energy investment. We know that will create jobs and investment, we know that’s the way to get serious jobs to dangerous, unhealthy pollution from the power sector, and we know from modelling released in recent weeks that this is the way to get downward pressure on wholesale power prices. | |
| The only reason there is downward pressure right now is the big expansion in renewable energy driven by Labor’s renewable energy target. That is what will or won’t happen depending on whether Labor’s plan or Malcolm Turnbull’s plan goes forward. | |
| Mark Butler said Labor will be seeking to amend the Neg (if it passes the states): | |
| We’ve said clearly, if the legislation comes for debate, and that’s subject to Coag processes, it’s our view that the emissions reduction target of 45% should be put in place. The government’s plan of 26% is a reduction of 2% over the course of a decade and will pull through absolutely no new investment, and that will be felt in higher power prices. The Labor party will be arguing for that position in parliament. | |
| The Neg press conference meant the barbecue for a Republic event was interrupted. | |
| Bill Shorten gave a speech – the main takeaway being: | |
| The Labor party in our first term as a government will hold a national referendum. We’ll ask Australians a very straightforward question: do you want to have an Australian head of state? | |
| Now, this question is not the only question for the nation to consider. There are many issues which Australians deal with in their daily lives, from their cost-of-living to their health care. | |
| But merely because Australians have plenty else to think about is not a reason to delay thinking about having an Australian head of state. | |
| The Australian people are capable of engaging in more than one issue at a time and it is well past the hour for Australia to have our own head of state. | |
| Take aways from that extraordinary statement from Tony Abbott: | |
| Yes, as the prime minister said at it’s close, there was party room support for the minister’s position. Much of it though, was of the “yes ... but” variety; congratulating him for the work he’d done in difficult circumstances and saying that the Neg was the best way through a bad situation; but most then added that what really mattered was actually getting prices down – not just talking about modelling – and actually getting more despatchable power into the system via ACCC recommendation 4. | |
| Unfortunately, most explanations of how the Neg (as it stands without price targets) might theoretically get prices down sound like merchant bankers’ gobbledygook. | |
| It was a real pity that the meeting broke up before the chairman of the backbench committee, Craig Kelly, was able to finish his contribution. | |
| Yes, there were lots of pleas for unity, but as one MP said, we’ve got to be loyal to our electorates and to party members too, and not show the “unity of lemmings”. | |
| Yes, there were lots of regards for the “experts” and for “business leaders”, but as one MP said “I’m not here for the technocrats”. | |
| The big question that the party room didn’t really grapple with - when the big emitters are not meeting Paris, why should we? Especially, even as the Chief Scientist said, the difference meeting our target would make is “virtually nothing”. | |
| Annnnnnd then this happened: | Annnnnnd then this happened: |
| I’m not going to release my own comments to the party room, because they were along the lines of my remarks to media on the way into the parliament, but the rampant hostile briefing of journalists while the meeting was underway does require a response. pic.twitter.com/YOfv9PZVQA | I’m not going to release my own comments to the party room, because they were along the lines of my remarks to media on the way into the parliament, but the rampant hostile briefing of journalists while the meeting was underway does require a response. pic.twitter.com/YOfv9PZVQA |
| A little more Malcolm Turnbull: | A little more Malcolm Turnbull: |
| Remember it was my action as prime minister that resulted in the gas shortage on the east coast being resolved and that is the big factors that brought down the cost of wholesale generation. It was Josh’s legislation that got rid of the limited-merits review, which, of course, reduces the ability of the owners of the poles and wires to game the system with endless appeals. | Remember it was my action as prime minister that resulted in the gas shortage on the east coast being resolved and that is the big factors that brought down the cost of wholesale generation. It was Josh’s legislation that got rid of the limited-merits review, which, of course, reduces the ability of the owners of the poles and wires to game the system with endless appeals. |
| In every area you look at, we are seeking to reduce costs. Look at the action we took with the retailers. We hauled them in and said too many people are on your standard offers. You’re taking advantage of them. And they wrote to them and hundreds of thousands of people have switched to more competitive plans or switched suppliers and are now paying less for electricity. Every single element of the supply chain for electricity is being addressed by us to reduce the cost for families and businesses. That’s our commitment and we are demonstrating that our policies are working. | In every area you look at, we are seeking to reduce costs. Look at the action we took with the retailers. We hauled them in and said too many people are on your standard offers. You’re taking advantage of them. And they wrote to them and hundreds of thousands of people have switched to more competitive plans or switched suppliers and are now paying less for electricity. Every single element of the supply chain for electricity is being addressed by us to reduce the cost for families and businesses. That’s our commitment and we are demonstrating that our policies are working. |
| So how important is it that Labor supports this legislation, according to the prime minister? | So how important is it that Labor supports this legislation, according to the prime minister? |
| The Labor party has to decide whether they want to support cheaper and more reliability electricity. You know, we have got to bring an end to the years of ideology and idiocy which have been a curse on energy policy for too long and that is why industry – whether you’re talking about big industrial consumers or small business – consumer groups are calling on government, governments and oppositions to get behind this policy. We need to get a certain environment so that people will invest and that’s really the question for Bill Shorten. Bill Shorten wrote to me last year and in the middle of last year and urged me to adopt a bipartisan approach, you know, a non-political approach to energy policy. Well, he’s got everybody lined up supporting – industry, consumer groups – supporting the national energy guarantee. Now is the time for him to support it and vote for it. | The Labor party has to decide whether they want to support cheaper and more reliability electricity. You know, we have got to bring an end to the years of ideology and idiocy which have been a curse on energy policy for too long and that is why industry – whether you’re talking about big industrial consumers or small business – consumer groups are calling on government, governments and oppositions to get behind this policy. We need to get a certain environment so that people will invest and that’s really the question for Bill Shorten. Bill Shorten wrote to me last year and in the middle of last year and urged me to adopt a bipartisan approach, you know, a non-political approach to energy policy. Well, he’s got everybody lined up supporting – industry, consumer groups – supporting the national energy guarantee. Now is the time for him to support it and vote for it. |
| Malcolm Turnbull on whether he’ll tell his colleagues to “stop bagging” the Neg: | Malcolm Turnbull on whether he’ll tell his colleagues to “stop bagging” the Neg: |
| I’ll discuss matters with my colleagues directly rather than through your offices. Thank you for the kind offer. But this is a policy which has been the subject of extensive consultation. It’s been discussed at Coalition party room meetings on a number of occasions now, and we have received overwhelming support for it. It’s the policy of the government and it will deliver, as the experts have advised, and as industry have advised us – which is why they’re urging us to get on with it – it will deliver more reliable power and cheaper power. We want to see the corner we have turned on electricity prices, that to continue. We want people’s bills to keep coming down. | I’ll discuss matters with my colleagues directly rather than through your offices. Thank you for the kind offer. But this is a policy which has been the subject of extensive consultation. It’s been discussed at Coalition party room meetings on a number of occasions now, and we have received overwhelming support for it. It’s the policy of the government and it will deliver, as the experts have advised, and as industry have advised us – which is why they’re urging us to get on with it – it will deliver more reliable power and cheaper power. We want to see the corner we have turned on electricity prices, that to continue. We want people’s bills to keep coming down. |
| The next steps according to Josh Frydenberg: | The next steps according to Josh Frydenberg: |
| We’re having telephone hook-up this evening with the states, after which, consistent with their agreement at last Friday’s meeting, the draft exposure of state ledges will be released for comment for a period of a month - and that’s a statutory requirement – and then any necessary amendment also be made. The intention is that all states can agree on the final state legislation implemented in the national energy guarantee before Victoria goes into caretaker mode at the end of October. Now, let me make it very clear, let me make it very clear – the Australian energy market has said that in Victoria last year, there was a 43% chance of load shedding, a euphemism for blackouts. Victoria has the second highest electricity prices in the country. It’s time Daniel Andrews stopped walking both sides of the street and put the interests of Victorians first and the businesses of Victorians first and he would do that by signing up to the national energy guarantee before he goes into caretaker mode. | We’re having telephone hook-up this evening with the states, after which, consistent with their agreement at last Friday’s meeting, the draft exposure of state ledges will be released for comment for a period of a month - and that’s a statutory requirement – and then any necessary amendment also be made. The intention is that all states can agree on the final state legislation implemented in the national energy guarantee before Victoria goes into caretaker mode at the end of October. Now, let me make it very clear, let me make it very clear – the Australian energy market has said that in Victoria last year, there was a 43% chance of load shedding, a euphemism for blackouts. Victoria has the second highest electricity prices in the country. It’s time Daniel Andrews stopped walking both sides of the street and put the interests of Victorians first and the businesses of Victorians first and he would do that by signing up to the national energy guarantee before he goes into caretaker mode. |