Anthony Albanese refuses to give Labor position on Coalition's 'big stick' energy laws

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/29/anthony-albanese-refuses-to-give-labor-position-on-coalitions-big-stick-energy-laws

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Anthony Albanese has declined to say whether Labor will continue to oppose the Morrison government’s controversial “big stick” legislation allowing energy companies to be broken up if they engage in price-gouging.

The Coalition’s package also faces turbulence in the Senate, with the Centre Alliance signalling it could move amendments with the purpose of extending a divestiture power across the whole economy rather than restricting the proposal just to energy – an idea that could find favour in some quarters of the National party.

Labor strongly opposed the “big stick” package in the last parliament, but Albanese signalled on Wednesday all policy positions, including the previous opposition to the “big stick”, were now under review. Albanese said Labor would “regroup” and engage in “sober and considered analysis” before reaching a settled position.

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If Labor backflips and supports the package, the Senate crossbench will become irrelevant. But if Labor maintains its previous position, the Senate crossbench comes into play.

The Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick told Guardian Australia he would look to “broaden the application of divestiture across all sectors of the economy” if the divestiture package reached the Senate, because once the principle was accepted for one sector, it should be universally applied.

Patrick criticised the Morrison government for having a “hodgepodge” energy policy, and he said Centre Alliance positions on energy matters would be determined “in the context of providing clean, reliable and affordable power for Australians”.

With the Nationals permanently on the warpath about energy, the returning portfolio minister, Angus Taylor, has used an early round of interviews to signal the government will proceed promptly with the divestiture legislation, shelved in the last parliament, once the new parliament resumes in July.

The energy sector has been engaged in a substantial lobbying exercise to try and prevent the proposal from becoming law, and the Business Council of Australia has also voiced strong objections to the package. That lobbying effort will go into overdrive ahead of the resumption of parliament.

Some Liberals have previously had concerns about the “big stick” policy on the basis that breaking up big companies is not something that centre-right governments generally do, and Labor opposed the reform in the last parliamentary term on a similar rationale.

But the Nationals have pushed for the controversial policy to remain front and centre of the government’s energy policy. Queensland National Keith Pitt told Guardian Australia on Wednesday the divestiture package needed to be legislated as soon as possible.

He said breaking up energy companies was “obviously an option of last resort” but he said if the companies didn’t deliver power price relief to consumers then the government was prepared to “force” the issue.

Pitt also said he wanted the government to push on with a feasibility study examining whether a new power station should be built in Queensland, but he pointed out that the shortage in generation was more a problem in the southern states that it was in the north.

Pitt said the problems created by the departure of the Liddell power plant in New South Wales would not go away, so he argued it was crucial the Coalition move ahead with plans to underwrite new investments in power generation.

The resources minister, Matt Canavan, told Sky News he wanted the north Queensland power plant to be in train before the next federal election.