Scott Morrison has declared the national energy guarantee “dead” and will seek endorsement from cabinet to tear up the Paris emissions target legislation when it meets formally for the first time on Monday, as the new Prime Minister moves to stamp his authority over a new policy direction for the government.
“The NEG is dead, long live reliability guarantee, long live default prices, long live backing new power generation,” Mr Morrison said in an interview with The Weekend Australian.
In a signal that he intends to steer the Coalition back to a more socially conservative agenda, Mr Morrison said he would take personal carriage of the promised religious and freedom-of-speech protections, including parental rights that had been demanded by conservatives during the bitter gay-marriage debate last year.
And in what he claims will be the key economic “fault line” between the Coalition and Labor in the run-up to the next election, the new Liberal leader will roll out a wide-ranging small business reform program that goes beyond further tax reduction to include industrial relations reforms.
Mr Morrison said the first order of government business, with parliament due to return next week for the first time since the leadership spill, was putting to rest the issue of the Turnbull administration’s signature energy policy. The NEG had become emblematic of internal divisions within the Coalition and ultimately provided the trigger for the spill that elevated Mr Morrison into the top job on August 24.
“Next week we will be putting to rest the issue of the legislation … it won’t be proceeding,” Mr Morrison said in an interview in Albury on Thursday.
“Largely, we are in that position already anyway so it’s not a major shift. But we just need to put to rest any suggestion that this legislation is going ahead.”
Mr Morrison — in a bid to chart a new course on social values, having this week declared that he would attempt to heal the divisions within the Liberal Party with a return to Menzian beliefs — will elevate religious protections and freedom of speech as key planks of a values-based Coalition social agenda.
It was this issue that set up a schism in the Liberal Party between conservatives and moderates last year and which has yet to be resolved. “I’ll be taking personal and direct carriage of it … people know my views,” Mr Morrison said. “I gave a set of speeches last year and people know my areas of concern.”
In a departure from the moderate-led Turnbull government, Mr Morrison has signalled an unapologetic return to a conservative social policy agenda.
In November, Mr Morrison led a group of conservative Coalition MPs demanding significant religious and parental protections be included in the gay marriage bill. Specifically, he sought amendments that included an “anti-detriment” shield for defenders of traditional marriage and strengthened parental rights, including what children were taught at school.
The government has been sitting on recommendations of an inquiry commissioned by Malcolm Turnbull last year and conducted by Howard minister Philip Ruddock, who delivered his report to government in May.
Mr Morrison signalled he could go further than the recommendations, which are believed to have been weaker than what conservative MPs would accept.
In the past, Mr Morrison has cited “conscience protections” as a key issue in the debate and has labelled the mockery of Christians as a form of discrimination that he would not tolerate.
The former treasurer, however, declared that small business would be the primary economic battleground next year, believing that Labor had abandoned millions of small businesses, including “tradies”.
Claiming that the politics favour the Coalition, Mr Morrison will seek to wedge Bill Shorten by daring the opposition to go the polls on a platform of repealing two sets of tax cuts for small to medium-sized businesses with turnovers of under $50 million.
“This will be the key fault line … Labor wants every small business in the country to pay higher taxes … every single one,” Mr Morrison said. “Every small business up to $50m, they want all of them to pay more tax. What I’m trying to say is we are not just doing it because of the politics. It will be a broader package …. I want to continue working on tax, but I’m also looking at areas of access to finance, the cost of finance for small business … and we are looking at what’s happening in the workplace.”
In another key policy area that has created divisions within the government, an announcement on a population and immigration policy, which had been imminent before the leadership spill, is now likely to be delayed.
Mr Morrison, a proponent of immigration as a key economic driver had put himself at odds with other MPs, including former prime minister Tony Abbott, who have argued for dramatic cuts to the annual immigration intake, said he wanted an informed debate about the issue rather than a “superficial” one.
He said the debate was broader than just Sydney and Melbourne congestion, with migration between the states being a considerable issue for Queensland. “There are lots of things we have been working on that I’m supportive of … we are going to have a discussion about it,” he said. “I’m not interested in a superficial debate … let’s have it on the facts.”
