Business groups have blasted the coalition’s plan to walk away from Australia’s climate targets, claiming it could create uncertainty for investors, as polling shows the party’s popularity plunging to new lows.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley did a media blitz on Monday to sell her energy policy, arguing she cared about climate change but government policies needed to prioritise reducing power bills.
She said the coalition wanted to continue bringing renewables online, but claimed the shift away from fossil fuels like coal and gas was happening too fast.
“It’s an experiment to rely to such a degree on renewable energy,” she told ABC Radio.
Speaking on Seven’s Sunrise program, Ms Ley said bringing more gas into the nation’s energy grid would help reduce the price of electricity.
“Australian gas should be for Australians, and we need to make sure that we bring bring power prices down,” she said.
But business groups warned more policy details were needed to properly understand the impact of the coalition’s approach on company investment.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the shift meant Labor and the coalition no longer shared a target of net zero emissions by 2050.
“It’s been a head-spinning few days, quite exhausting really,” Mr Willox told ABC Radio National.
He said after 20 years of climate wars, the issue appeared to be settled for the last few.
“When you start taking away some of the core principles here … that makes business pause to think around well, what comes next? Will there be further upheaval?”
Energy experts have also criticised the plan, describing it as “nonsensical”.
Griffith University Associate Professor Joel Gilmore, an energy systems expert and member of the pro-renewables Climate Council, said net zero was the best way to reduce energy costs.
“It’s very clear that relying on coal and gas is going to be more expensive than renewables,” he told AAP.
“To fight against net zero is fighting against gravity.”
“It’s a nonsensical position to say we can turn back to coal any more than we would turn back to the horse and buggy,” Prof Gilmore said.
Ms Ley may now face leadership ructions over the policy move, having angered the moderate wing of her party which wanted a commitment to stronger action on climate change.
Conservatives would also prefer to have one of their own in the party’s top job, but say they have no plans to move a leadership spill because they’ve won the fight over climate policy.
Infighting within the party has taken a toll on its popularity among voters, with polling published by the Australian Financial Review on Sunday night finding the coalition’s primary vote fell five percentage points in a month to a poll-record low of 24 per cent.
One Nation rose four points to 18 per cent and Labor also gained four points to 38 per cent.
The poll of 1011 voters also shows Ms Ley with just 10 per cent of voters preferring her as prime minister, compared with 40 per cent for Anthony Albanese.
Read more on Illawarra Mercury
