Tuesday’s party room mood reflected the sense most Coalition MPs have that to save marginal seats and give the government its best chance of survival, they need to unite behind Turnbull.
The Coalition party room on Tuesday is set for a high stakes, quite personal battle between Abbott and Turnbull over the NEG, with former and current prime ministers shaping up on Monday.
Federal energy minister says his state counterparts have moved closer to approving the National Energy Guarantee, but no one signed on the dotted line at Friday’s crunch talks.
Grattan talks with Deep Saini about Husar’s announcement she will not contest the next election, Joyce’s book, and the hotly debated National Energy Guarantee.
As energy ministers head into a crucial meeting with their federal counterpart Josh Frydenberg, our state-by-state guide compares their various stances on the future of the National Energy Guarantee.
Victoria has again shifted the goal posts in the battle over the NEG suggesting parliament should pass the federal government’s emissions reduction legislation ahead of states signing onto the NEG.
Politics podcast: Barnaby Joyce at his provocative best
Barnaby Joyce has confirmed he could cross the floor on the federal legislation associated with the National Energy Guarantee. “Of course I could,” he says.
Meanwhile, underlining that next week will see a tough internal debate, Liberal backbencher Tony Pasin has contradicted Malcolm Turnbull’s statement that the NEG had already been endorsed by the party room.
The National Energy Guarantee faces a crunch test this week. And if the climate wars of the past few decades are any guide, Australian policies more often sink than swim when the waters get choppy.
On Monday the Labor states were jibbing at agreeing even in principle to the NEG mechanism at Friday’s COAG energy council meeting, ahead of Malcolm Turnbull showing he can deliver his party room.
The Victorian Labor government’s cabinet will consider on Monday a raft of demands around the National Energy Guarantee ahead of a crucial federal-state energy ministers’ meeting later this week.
Salim Mazouz, Australian National University; Frank Jotzo, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University et Hugh Saddler, Australian National University
The final design of the National Energy Guarantee promises that the policy will drive down power prices. But there is precious little evidence for this assertion.
“We won’t support a scheme that leaves the states in the dark and leaves us all hostage to the extremists in Turnbull’s party room,” D'Ambrosio will say.
A policy that aims to reshape the electricity sector needs to be judged on its numbers. But the lack of public modelling from the Energy Security Board makes it impossible for analysts to do this.
Australia’s transition to low-emissions energy will rely on what we have now (lots of coal) and what we’ll build in the future (lots of renewables), according to a new report.
Australia’s consumer watchdog has concluded that rooftop solar incentives have distorted the market unfairly for those who cannot afford solar panels, and has recommended the scheme ends ten years early.