The Coalition has committed Australia to a one-party state.
The Prime Minister said the divisions in the Liberal partyroom were “a sign for the Australian people of … the clown show they’ve become”.
The Nationals-inspired Liberal manifesto includes support for a “technology-neutral” Capacity Investment Scheme – rebadging it the Affordable Energy Scheme – providing taxpayer underwriting for coal, gas and nuclear generators as well as hydro, batteries and renewables. The underwriting scheme would also be used to maintain existing baseload generators until replacement capacity is ready, with taxpayer payments to help coal-fired power stations stay in the system for longer.
The Liberals would also move to increase the role of gas by fast-tracking new supply and infrastructure. This would be achieved through streamlining regulations, allowing more offshore exploration, supporting an east coast reservation scheme and strengthening the export trigger.
Ms Ley would also scrap Labor’s 82 per cent renewables target by 2030 and repeal legislation enshrining its 2030 emissions-reduction target and 2050 net zero target.
The Liberal plan would gut the safeguard mechanism and replace it with a voluntary system, similar to Tony Abbott’s Emissions Reduction Fund that was endorsed by the Nationals two weeks ago.
The policy would also jettison penalties under the vehicle emissions standard, drop tax cuts for electric vehicles, oppose offshore wind and develop a new code of conduct for renewable developers to ensure projects have community support.
The Liberals would encourage investment in low-emission technologies by broadening the investment mandate of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. This would see the agencies allocate taxpayer support for carbon capture and storage, small modular nuclear reactors, soil carbon biofuels, batteries, artificial intelligence to manage the electricity grid, blue hydrogen and low-emission manufacturing.
Climate policy experts argue it is incompatible with the Paris accord for a national government to reduce its emissions-reduction targets, with the text of the international agreement saying countries can adjust commitments “with a view to enhancing its level of ambition”.
This is magic pudding economics. It is allegedly going to simultaneously:
- Stick to net zero while doing the opposite.
- Meet treaty obligations while trashing them.
- Decarbonise by using more coal.
- Use various renewable regulatory mechanisms to boost fossil fuel usage.
- Be technology neutral while privileging fossil fuels.
- Embrace markets while subsidising everything.
- Reserve gas to cheapen the price while increasing expensive production.
There is no policy focus. No carbon plan. No technological plan. No way to recognise international obligations.
This is openly a party room compromise between warring factions, not an energy policy.
I can’t even tell if it will lower prices—it’s stated only objective—or how it might do so, because it is such a mess of contradictions.
This LNP was smashed at the last election largely owing to the return of Donald Trump.
Yet here it is embracing the worst of his policies (while leaving the super popular features, such as lower immigration, off the table).
This unsellable tripe is two things.
First, it is a halfway house on the way to a new conservative leader who fully rejects climate change mitigation.
Second, it is handing Labor permanent power as Teals take LNP seats nationwide.
