PM Malcolm Turnbull’s new promise: Power bills to be cut by $550 a year
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is claiming his National Energy Guarantee policy will cut power bills by $550.
The policy, planned to start in 2020, is designed to reduce power bills, but critics fear the NEG could drive up prices instead and lead to more blackouts.
While the NEG received a lot of support in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, a handful of MPs – including Tony Abbott – have criticised the policy.
“We've had a good debate in the coalition party room – overwhelming support for the National Energy Guarantee,” Mr Turnbull said after the meeting.
“[The] object is cheaper, and more reliable energy and at the same time, of course, meet our commitments to reduce emissions in accordance with the Paris agreement.”
The legislation, which has an emissions reduction target of 26 per cent on 2995 levels by 2030 for the electricity sector, will be introduced to federal parliament this sitting fortnight.
It is possible Mr Abbott and other critics of the policy could cross the floor when the vote is put forth in the one-seat majority parliament.
When asked about the possibility of losing the vote, Mr Turnbull said he shared his colleagues’ concerns about power prices.
He said the government would only make the changes through legislation, not regulation.
“We believe in democracy,” he said.
“We believe the parliament should have a say in this and so if we legislate that, then a subsequent government, whether it's on our side of politics or the other, would have to persuade both houses of parliament to make any changes to it.”
The NEG is designed to cut power bills by $550 a year and requires retailers to source electricity that meets the standards of the Paris Agreement emissions reduction targets.
Mr Abbott argued coalition MPs would be “dead wrong” to back the policy, while former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, proposed an amendment to enforce price reductions.
“Let’s for once run a power system to produce affordable, reliable power,” Mr Abbott said.
“The argument (to set a 26 percent target), that Labor would be worse, is no excuse for us to do something that is bad, and wrong.
“This is by far the biggest thing the parliament has been asked to do, and we must not compromise the future of our country by entrenching in law, these bad targets.
“Let’s have no targets.
“I’ll be warning our party room that if we agree, they will be signing up to the deindustrialisation of our country.”
Although Mr Abbott’s Cabinet agreed to the Paris deal, he said many factors had changed his mind.
“Since then, we’ve seen China and India not agree to any emissions cuts, we’ve seen the United States pull out of Paris,” he said.
“Since then we’ve seen massive economic dislocation. The 24-hour blackout in South Australia, prices go through the roof.
“And when circumstances change, sensible people change their mind.”
Labor leader Bill Shorten said earlier that the Prime Minister had surrendered to climate sceptics in the government.
“The only thing guaranteed to come out of today is higher power prices and less renewable energy. We have cobbled together today a Frankenstein's monster of a policy,” he said.
“While Mr Turnbull goes around attacking Mr Abbott, Mr Turnbull is, in fact, giving in to a lot of Mr Abbott's values when it comes to climate change and energy.”
Greenpeace claimed there was not enough evidence to support claims the NEG would reduce power prices.
“The government is relying on a single Excel spreadsheet to justify their claim that the NEG will reduce power prices,” Greenpeace Australia's Alix Foster Vander Elst said.
“Either that or the government is covering up the full report on the impact of the NEG because they have taken the political gamble that risking a cover-up is better than making the modelling and assumptions behind it public.
“There is not a single reference to a $550 price drop in this document. The government is just plucking random numbers out of the air.”
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