SYDNEY, Aug 15, 2018 – Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said she will thoroughly examine the proposed state bill to legislate the NEG mechanism with a fine tooth comb to see what concessions Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made to win the begrudging support of the climate sceptics and denialists in the Coalition.Last night, following the bitter and divisive passage of the NEG’s federal legislation through the Coalition party room, Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg tried to sell the bill to his state counterparts via teleconference.
“Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg cannot be trusted, so Victoria and the other Labour states are right to put the proposal under the microscope rather than take the word of this duplicitous duo,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific Campaigner Alix Foster Vander Elst said.
“Lily D’Ambrosio said she will thoroughly examine the legislation to see what concessions have been made to the climate sceptics and coal huggers in the Coalition. Well, the early indications are that she won’t have to look very hard.
“A key compromise is the government’s pledge to underwrite new power generation. There have been heavy hints that this could include the construction of a new coal-fired power plant, exposing Turnbull’s technology agnostic lies. This crass political calculation may win support among the Coalition’s coal fetishists but there will be dire electoral implications for advocating a policy that will cripple renewables, including rooftop solar, push up power prices and subject Australians to years of unreliable coal power and all the environmental havoc that goes with it.”
The Australian Energy Market Operator identified a mixture of renewables backed by battery storage and a small amount of gas as the cheapest and easiest way to replace the existing coal fleet. But Turnbull has once again chosen ideology over expertise and bowed to the demands of rabid backbenchers.
There are now new warnings that this latest move will bring down the government’s house of cards claims about the NEG reducing power prices. A new analysis by the Australia Institute’s chief economist, Richard Denniss, argues that potential shifts in the policy such as Turnbull’s flirtation with the idea of a government-funded coal plant will change the market so much that the government’s modelling – and claims about price reductions – will be rendered “virtually meaningless”. [1]
Despite Freedom of Information requests from Greenpeace Australia Pacific [2] and a Senate motion the government has failed to produce the evidence to back its claims that the NEG will reduce power prices, with independent modelling showing it will actually raise prices by 25 percent. [3]
“The PM is no longer trying to hide the fact that he cares more about securing a political victory than climate change or families’ power bills. Victoria, Queensland and the ACT must stick to their demands or risk being forever associated with state-sponsored coal,” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.
“And the same goes for federal Labour, which will come under pressure to help pass the bill as increasingly defiant MPs flout Malcolm Turnbull’s waning authority by threatening to cross the the floor. We know that Turnbull can’t be trusted to do what is right for the country so the onus is now on Labour to put policy over politics and reject the NEG.”
Notes
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[2]
[3] https://www.greenpeace.org.au/research/neg-report/
For interviews:
Martin Zavan, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Communications Campaigner
0424 295 422