According to David Speers he may as well go overseas . Even his mates appear to have stopped listening .
David Speers: Coalition party room silence shows Tony Abbott has run out of steam
DAVID SPEERS, Herald Sun
October 20, 2017 9:00pm
Subscriber only
IT wasn’t a moment of hostility or anger, but it was a powerful moment nonetheless. Coalition MPs had spent two hours grilling the experts who designed their new policy, the National Energy Guarantee.
Once the technical to-and-fro was done, the experts left the room. Now it was just the MPs.
For months, Tony Abbott had been gearing up for a showdown, vowing to “save the government from itself” if necessary. This was meant to be the big test for Malcolm Turnbull, a Prime Minister under pressure. Abbott piped up.
He had been among a handful raising concerns with the experts and now suggested a final decision be delayed. He wanted a further “political discussion”. TURNBULL BLASTS STATE PREMIERS OVER NEC McCRANN: ABBOTT DRAWS LINE IN ENERGY SAND
But no one backed him in. Not his loyal allies, Eric Abetz or Kevin Andrews, not even Craig Kelly. There was silence.
Turnbull then asked if the policy had the support of the room. A loud “yeah” rang out. Abbott was isolated.
Labor’s suggestion Turnbull has merely sought to appease Abbott with this policy badly misreads what has just happened in the Liberal Party.
Tony Abbott found no support in the party room, even from loyalists such as Kevin Andrews. Picture: Gary Ramage
This is not an Abbott policy. Taxpayers aren’t building a new coal-fired power station. Australia isn’t withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.
Instead, energy retailers will actually have to lower their emissions over time, while also guaranteeing reliability.
For much of the past decade, Abbott has had a stranglehold on Australia’s climate and energy policies. It’s been his defining political strength, since bringing down Malcolm Turnbull in 2009.
He stopped the Liberal Party from backing Kevin Rudd’s ETS and became a ferocious campaigner against any sort of price on carbon. He fought Julia Gillard’s carbon tax and won.
If ever there was an issue that might see nervous Liberal MPs restore Abbott to the prime ministership, this was surely it. He has a proven track record, after all.
But two things have happened. Abbott has drifted to the fringe of the debate in the Coalition by suggesting “climate change may be doing more good than harm”.
Turnbull, meanwhile, has found a policy the party room likes and settled what’s been a hugely divisive issue. The significance can’t be understated. Had Turnbull failed this week, he would have been finished as Prime Minister.
For the first time, the Coalition has embraced a policy that requires the electricity sector to lower its emissions. It’s resisted the pressure from conservative commentators to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
The Coalition is playing to the mainstream middle, those who want lower emissions but don’t want to pay any more.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Melbourne on Friday. Picture: AAP
There are still some conservatives in the Liberal Party who are nervous about this policy. They fear the sales effort so far has been too technocratic and agree with Abbott that building a new coal-fired plant would be a simpler policy to sell (although how this would make power any more reliable or affordable until it’s built remains a mystery).
Overwhelmingly though, Coalition MPs are happy. So, too, are the various industry bodies who’ve been crying out for policy certainty. Even some in the renewables sector say this is a policy they can work with.
The endorsements from business, the energy sector and consumer groups will make this a difficult policy for federal Labor and the states to oppose.
More detailed modelling is being carried out over the next month by the Australian Energy Market Commission.
Given its boss, John Pierce, is the principal architect of the NEG, it’s hard to think that modelling won’t back up his initial analysis that households will save about $115 a year.
Australian Energy Market Commission chair John Pierce. Picture: AAP
The one thing this policy can’t guarantee is a political rebound for Turnbull. Voters are weary of this energy debate and the promise of slightly lower power prices in three years’ time was never going to be met with wild celebration.
Still, Turnbull and his minister, Josh Frydenberg, have done much better than most expected this week. An extremely difficult internal debate has been settled. If this had dragged into next week, the Prime Minister’s authority would have been shot.
Abbott was certainly among those who made it clear he didn’t like the idea of a Clean Energy Target, but no one can seriously argue this National Energy Guarantee is something he would have designed. His longstanding influence over the Coalition’s climate policy is no more.
Later this month, Abbott will again make headlines with another international speech. He’s speaking against same-sex marriage to a Christian group in the United States that has previously called for homosexuality to be recriminalised.
Some of Abbott’s colleagues are already nervous about what he might say and privately wish he would give some serious thought to leaving politics so he can spend more time giving provocative speeches to conservative groups in foreign lands.
That’s not likely to happen, but Abbott has certainly been marginalised for now. David Speers is the political editor of Sky News Australia
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