‘Cowardly and reckless’ Turnbull turns his back on clean energy

The Prime Minister’s decision to abandon his commitment to the implementation of a Clean Energy Target as recommended by the Finkel Report has been slammed as a spineless and craven capitulation to his backbench by the head of the energy union.

Electrical Trades Union national secretary Allen Hicks said that workers, consumers and investors would suffer as a result of the decisions.

“Australia needs a clean energy target. We need certainty for business investment in renewables. We need lower power bills. And we need secure jobs in the growing clean energy sector,” Mr Hicks said.

“This is a cowardly and reckless decision that’s been made in the interests of appeasing internal actors in the Liberal and National Party Rooms. It is against the interest of Australians.”

Mr Hicks said that it was not only those in renewables who were affected by the decision.

“People working and investing in all parts of the energy sector need certainty to plan for their future. It is cruel and senseless to deprive them of that certainty.”

Mr Hicks said the Prime Minister’s recent showboating on energy policy was revealed as empty rhetoric by this decision.

“One the one hand Mr Turnbull is telling Australians we are paying too much for energy, on the other he is deciding not to bring prices down by committing to a CET.

“He’s telling us we need to secure our future energy supplies, but he has repeatedly scared off investors in generation capacity – especially in renewables – by showing that he cannot be trusted to implement policies that will provide the certainty needed to invest.”

Mr Hicks blasted the Prime Minister for using energy as a political distraction while failing to implement such a fundamental policy.

“The PM is happy to confect an ‘energy crisis’ when it suits him politically, to pick fights and make noise, but he can’t back any of it up. He can’t or won’t stop generators gaming the system to drive prices up. He can’t or won’t take meaningful action to regulate retail prices.

“And he can’t – or won’t – put in place the clean energy target that Australia needs to bring down power bills and secure our energy future.”

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18 comments

I write to my local member 3 or 4 times a year on local issues and on Federal issues.

I get Emails back from Darren Chester our local.

Do you know that 22,000 demands for debt was sent by mistake by centrelink to pensioners?

I ripped strips off the bastard for that.

Watch 4-corners tonight at 8.30 for Adani exposure.

And what a bloody rip off that will be if allowed to go ahead -- good God you only have to look at that scum bag to see he is crooked as -- and you can imagine what the Government is getting out of him as back handers

92 yo friend whose husband died recently was told that NBN was working in her area and she was going to lose her landline and medical emergency line. Very stressed.

On her behalf I emailed NBN, State member (Birkdale, Qld) and Federal Member Andrew Laming. Results....computer generated answers from NBN and State member but Andrew Laming sent a personal email reply at 9:30 that night and called me next morning before allaying my friends fears and fixing her problem. Credit where credit due....fantastic concern for a constituent shown by Andrew Laming. Should be more like him.

Good on Andrew Laming ... but even more ... good on you for helping!! Great result.

:) Should be more like you too.

That is correct PB they do take bribes.

In bed with Adani, must have paid them enough to convince pollies to let Adani use unlimited water for Charmichael mine on a 60 year lease! That is water for Australians, Australian farmers and our food production! Did anyone watch 4-corners and see what Adani is like, bribes galore. Destruction of the environment and breaking laws set up to protect the environment, don't expect them to do any better with the 'stringent' laws set up by this Government to allow the Charmichael mine to go ahead.

I just can't understand why Queensland ever got involved with this character from the start. As a Queenslander, I've followed its worrisome and sorry progression ... the whole deal was dodgy from the very beginning.

Pollies chasing local 'jobs' glory. Desperate to support this project's very questionable developers. Mad IMO.

It was previously thought that Atulya Resources, a Cayman Islands domiciled company controlled by members of the Adani family, was the ultimate holding company for Abbot Point, the expansion project, and the railway. However, filings in Singapore by privately-owned Adani companies show that a company registered in another notorious tax haven, the British Virgin Islands, sits behind Atulya Resources.

The British Virgin Islands' company's apparent position at the apex of the structure is disclosed in the financial reports of a series of Adani companies controlled by Vinod Adani, also known as Vinod Shantilal Adani or Vinod Shah. Vinod Adani, the older brother of Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, has been under investigation in India over an alleged scam designed to shift money offshore.

"I think there's a national security issue here," energy finance analyst Tim Buckley, a long-time critic of the Carmichael mine said, "Abbot Point one of our biggest ports, it's owned in this opaque structure through multiple tax havens. The sole director in Singapore is Vinod Shah and Vinod Shah is under multiple corruption and tax fraud inquiries by the Indian Government, and yet here we are with the port, one of the biggest ports in Australia controlled by Vinod Shah."

Full ABC story.

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