This is a repost of an article that was originally posted on 14 June 2017. I have reposted this in light of current controversy on extending the life of coal fired generators.
In his journal, The Constant Investor, Alan Kohler sheeted blame very directly to the Coalition and Malcolm Turnbull. He said
Those crises have now arrived in the form of blackouts, and they are not caused by too much renewable energy… it’s due to a lack of investment, in turn due to a lack of policy certainty and clarity. This is entirely the Liberal Party’s fault — not just Malcolm Turnbull’s, although he is a rather pathetic figure now. If he didn’t go along with the hoax, he’d be sacked and another PM would. By taking the low road in 2009 instead of the high road, and deciding to mislead Australians about the true cost of energy, the Liberal Party condemned the country to a decade of confusion and stasis on energy policy. That reached a nadir of absurdity last week with the Treasurer’s coal stunt. The rest of Australia’s leaders, in particular the CEOs of our largest companies, should declare now that enough is enough, and pull these idiots into line.
Pleading by the Business Council and others for bipartisanship on energy policy is a political cover for their past and very politically partisan support of the Coalition on energy policy such as an Emissions Trading Scheme and a carbon price.
In 2006 John Howard asked Peter Shergold, the Head of PM & C, to examine the most effective ways to reduce carbon emissions. Peter Shergold advised that an ETS was necessary. There was no progress.
Then the first Rudd government, following discussion papers, introduced its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2009. Unfortunately the legislation was rejected in the Senate because of the combined opposition of the Coalition and the Greens. By then the Coalition was at the peak of its climate change denial and the Greens said that the CPRS was not good enough. Disappointingly, Kevin Rudd decided not to take the issue to a double dissolution. After the disappointment of Copenhagen he lost his ‘mojo’.
There is no doubt in my mind however that if the CPRS had been agreed the issue of global warming and carbon pollution would have been almost done and settled. Or at least we had the beginnings of good policy.
But worse was to follow. Malcolm Turnbull supported CPRS because we thought he believed in its importance as a market mechanism to put a price on carbon and let the market influence investment decisions. Unfortunately, many Coalition members, including Tony Abbott, disagreed with him and Malcolm Turnbull was defeated by one vote in the Liberal Party in 2009.
After the 2010 election, the Gillard government proposed a carbon tax which I still believe is sensible policy. But the carbon tax let loose a scare campaign by Tony Abbott and his business and media supporters that we have not seen the like of before. Tony Abbott won the 2013 election quite handsomely with a dishonest campaign of opposition to the carbon tax and scant regard for the damage that climate change was already causing in Australia.
Restored to the leadership of the Liberal Party in September 2015, and as Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull has been crab-walking away from climate change and related policies as fast as he can in order to placate the right-wing climate change deniers in his own party. He blamed the SA government for blackouts which had very little to do with renewables, but were due to the collapse of the pylons. He continually talks about blackouts in SA but in NSW with a state Liberal government he refers merely to ‘power shedding’. There certainly have been substantial electricity price increases in SA but the price increases have been much greater in Queensland which is very dependent upon coal-fired generators. Almost all the media, including the ABC have been complicit in not exposing the PM’s false claims.
Malcolm Turnbull has abandoned almost all those things that we thought he believed in. In a difficult situation he cannot be relied on. He is not there when we need him.
He installs solar panels and a battery in his own private residence, yet attacks state premiers in their commitment to renewable energy.
For years there have been cries for a stable and predictable environment on climate and energy policies in order that wise and efficient business decisions could be made. It didn’t happen. We were warned about a system crisis. We now have one as our record hot summer unfolds.
See also Quentin Dempster in the New Daily on Tony Abbott’s role in Australia’s energy crisis.
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
Comments
5 responses to “JOHN MENADUE. Abbott and Turnbull are the real culprits on the energy policy mess. (repost)”
Thank you, John, a really good summary.
I think that the more sensible elements of the Coalition could come to an agreement with Labor on the Finkel Report. It would then be up to Malcolm then to put the climate / energy proposal to the parliament on a ‘free’ vote basis (not necessarily party aligned). I think that it would have a good chance of passing, particularly with appropriate pressure on the cross-benches.
As the next election approaches the Coalition needs to dis-endorse all those who voted against the agreed Finkel solution. Harsh but essential if the nation is progress environmentally, socially and economically.
The explanation in a single word: COALition
I also remember that in the early 2000s when we still had a Greenhouse Office (established by Howard) , the then Minister for Environment (Turnbull?) twice took an ETS to Cabinet and twice it was rolled by McFarlane, Minister for Industry
Great to see some plain speaking John. From you and others. The Murdoch press remain silent. Voters are exhausted by anger and frustration at this government, but the Coalition blunders on seemingly immune to public opinion.
An excellent summary of the disastrous situation we now face. But the general public have to take considerable responsibility for this to the extent they scarcely protest to politicians about inactivity on anthropogenic climate change and the need for major investment in renewable energy. The fatalism and insularity of middle Australia is going to cost us and the next generations very heavily. It is not so much that middle Australia does not believe that climate change is occurring, but the inherent fatalism prevents ten from placing pressure on their political representatives to do anything about it. It is also possible that the problem is perceived by them as being so daunting that it is easier to bury one’s head in the sane in the hope it will go away.
Nor does neoliberalism with its feudalistic leadership structures and short-term time frame help at all. The fundamental problem those of us who are extremely worried about climate change face is that of turning around the general population and making them put pressure on their political representatives: before it is too late.