The chairman of the Coalition’s backbench energy committee has urged Malcolm Turnbull to give the party room more time to debate its energy plan, warning the government to “make sure” it encourages new investment in coal.
The government is pushing the states and territories to sign up to its National Energy Guarantee on Friday.
Victoria is already threatening to ditch the deal, accusing the government of trying to secure a national agreement before it has the backing of its own party room – which is due to meet to discuss the policy next Tuesday.
Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has claimed the “” of government members. On Monday, he said he was “not sure what reservation Craig Kelly has".
Mr Kelly is now calling for more time, saying the backbench was yet to see the legislation.
“A few more weeks of discussing, debating, looking at the details, trying to find any unintended consequences, I don’t think is going to hurt,” Mr Kelly told SBS News.
He said he was “yet to see” the “very, very complicated” detail of the legislation, which aims to put the burden on power generators to meet both emissions reductions targets and a reliability guarantee, to make sure they can supply enough on-demand power in peak periods.
“My job as a member of parliament of the backbench is to look at every piece of legislation with a skeptical eye,” Mr Kelly said.
“We want to make sure that we can use Australian coal to generate cheap electricity here in Australia.”
Mr Kelly is among a group of MPs, including former prime minister Tony Abbott and several members of the Nationals, that has argued the government’s energy policy will fail to bring down power prices for consumers unless it encourages new investment in coal-fired power.
“We want to make sure that we can use Australian coal to generate cheap electricity here in Australia,” he said.
The Labor states – Queensland, Victoria and the ACT – are unhappy with the proposal to enshrine a 26 per cent emissions reduction target in legislation.
They would prefer a more flexible regulation that a future government could scale up to a more ambitious target – like the 45 per cent reduction advocated by Bill Shorten’s federal team.
“There is a fundamental concern about Malcolm Turnbull’s apparent intention to tie the hands of future governments from expanding opportunities for renewable energy investment,” Labor’s shadow energy minister Mark Butler said on Monday.
Mr Kelly said Mr Turnbull was doing a “very good job” as prime minister under "difficult circumstances".
