From Treasurer Morrison:
Treasurer Scott Morrison has warned the federal government can’t continue with existing energy policy because it’s hurting families and the economy.
Mr Morrison described as a “useful discussion” a lengthy coalition partyroom meeting on Tuesday night about a report from Chief Scientist Alan Finkel on energy security.
Mr Morrison warned that for 10 years “politics as usual” had delivered business as usual and that wasn’t working.
“If you stick to the status quo on energy policy then prices are going to go up which is going to hurt families, hurt households, hurt businesses, hurt the economy,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Continuing along the same path would see Australia’s traditional advantage of cheap power eroded, with coal generators shutting earlier and no stability in other parts of the sector.
“As treasurer, this is important for our economy that we have a stable system in which investors can put their investment funds to deliver what our economy needs.”
Mr Morrison also rejected Mr Abbott’s claim the clean energy target was a “magic pudding” and effectively a tax on coal.
Putting in more coal power will not change a thing for household or industrial power bills. Coal does not set the price of electricity on Australia’s east coast. Gas does owing to where it sits in the wholesale electricity market bid stack. See the AEMO description below:
To reduce electricity prices, we need cheaper gas to bring existing but idled gas generation online. Over the medium term, stable carbon pricing policy will decarbonise the network with longer term battery and other storage options to stabilise renewables. This was always the national plan, such as it was, that gas would be the transitional fuel as we move steadily from coal power to renewables. The main problem is exports have priced gas out.
If the Coalition were remotely serious about reducing power bills it would use its gas reservation mechanism pronto.
