SYDNEY, Aug 17, 2018 – Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is bungling his way to political oblivion by seeking to appease the coal huggers in the Coalition by making the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) even more destructive than it already is.This evening, the under siege PM tried to quell a group of rebel MPs signalling their intention to cross the floor and vote against the NEG, by revealing he will not seek to legislate Australia’s emission reduction target and instead make the target adjustable by regulation.
“Malcolm Turnbull lacks political judgement, but even he could see he was in trouble,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific Campaigner Alix Foster Vander Elst said.
“Unfortunately for Malcolm, that same lack of judgement has seen him make a bad policy a potential disaster for the environment, the renewables industry and power prices. Under this proposal future targets will be set by regulation rather than legislation, allowing the minister to move the target without parliamentary approval.
“With nothing to prevent the target moving backwards Turnbull’s ill-considered amendment could see pollution increase dramatically by pushing even more renewables out of the system to be replaced with expensive and unreliable coal.”
As it stands the NEG’s 26 percent target will already hobble the renewables industry and reverse the downward pressure it is placing on electricity bills. If Turnbull’s latest version of the NEG is legislated we could see the construction of a government-backed coal plant that will increase emissions as the rest of the world is acting to bring them down.
“Without doing anything Australia will already get to 26 percent emission reduction by 2024,” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.
“This latest move could see Australia fail to achieve even that pathetic goal by 2030 and that will carry dire consequences for pollution levels, power prices and the viability of entire renewables industry.”
For interviews:
Martin Zavan, Greenpeace AUstralia Pacific Communications Campaigner
0424 295 422