This raises the critical question: what is the key to Liberal Party success? History points to a sustained theme, the ability to champion and hold together the liberal and conservative traditions. The remarkable individual and collective success of Robert Menzies, Malcolm Fraser and Howard in office testifies to their mastery of this art. Each managed to hold the ­allegiance of conservatives and liberals, striking a balance between stability and progress. The experience of the Abbott-Turnbull era suggests this art is either lost or awaiting rediscovery.

It is astonishing, therefore, that perhaps the strongest media critique of Turnbull in his first year as PM, delivered on a virtual weekly basis, was that he should have moved decisively to the progressive side by sharply lifting the ­government’s climate change ambitions, authorising a free vote on same-sex marriage and even taking up the republican cause.

Anyone who thinks this was marrying the conservative and liberal traditions must live on another planet. It was doing the exact opposite. Such media critiques assumed, dubiously, these moves would lift Turnbull’s public standing while ignoring what would happen to his standing among his colleagues and voting base. The ensuing turmoil would have wrecked his government and jeopardised his leadership. Imagine the scale of the conservative voting haemorrhage today had Turnbull followed such advice, particularly on climate change.

Paul Kelly .. Australian

Malcolm is my local MP The only time I hear from him in s newsletter is telling me with great delight how he is punishing people . 

Self funded retirees or Children being banned from child care as their parents have missed one innoculation . Forgetting the rights and wrongs of these policies ( been debated on here) 

it is not in line with the conservative tradition of self reliance and personal responsibility . 

I have personaly suffered from these policies , by the enforcement of them by a uncaring beurocracy,

I think the person to best sum up Turnbull was Graham Richardson (and I am no Labor fan) who described him as a rolled gold world class DITHERER or words similar.

One of his main reasons for taking over from Abbott was the electorate were not understanding Liberal policies. All he has done is confuse the issues further, because now no one knows what this pompous windbag stands for. Although I strongly agree on his innoculation policy

One criticism of Malcolm Turnbull is that he is Labor-lite. After hearing him say the following, it’s not so much a case of Labor-lite as left of Labor.

“The gas companies, I have no doubt, are very well aware they operate with the benefit of a social licence from the Australian people. And they cannot expect to maintain that if, while billions of dollars of gas are being exported, Australians are left short.”

Where do you start when a Liberal prime minister blurts out this sort of economic illiteracy, particularly as he went on to warn that the government had considerable power to control the export of gas?

If he had only taken the time, he would have realised that the current and future shortage of domestic gas (and associated rising prices) along the east coast has been many years in the making. Federal and state governments have been warned time and again, and all chose to ignore the warnings.

Moreover, the completely misguided renewable energy target has squeezed out gas as a source of transitional energy for electricity generation. This has left the gas producers with no choice but to seek out customers overseas. It is not only the Pelican Point gas-fired power station in Adelaide that is mothballed; the Swanbank E gas-fired power station in Queensland also isn’t operational.

Let’s be clear: for many years, domestic gas was underpriced relative to its true opportunity cost, meaning extra sources of supply were never fully explored. Then the NSW government made a complete hash of the potential for local gas production — the state imports 97 per cent of its gas — and a very large source of new gas remains in the ground.

Now the Prime Minister clearly thinks that going all hairy-chested and telling the private gas companies what to do can somehow be effective.

It may pay some short-term dividends but, quite quickly, companies faced with sub-optimal returns will take their investment dollars elsewhere.

This is one reason — apart from introducing an inexcusable element of sovereign risk into the equation — why an export gas reservation policy is a terrible idea.

The government should be swayed by the advice of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission on this matter — don’t do it.

As long as the RET is in place, gas will be outcompeted as a source of electricity generation, notwithstanding its desirable properties in terms of emissions and flexibility.

And as long as NSW, in particular, and other states stymie the exploration and development of additional gas reserves, the Prime Minister’s short-term fix will quickly come undone.

Judith Sloan

CONTRIBUTING ECONOMICS EDITORMELBOURNE
Judith Sloan is an economist and company director. She holds degrees from the University of Melbourne and the London School of Economics. She has held a number of government appointments, including Commissioner of the Productivity Commission; Commissioner of the Australian Fair Pay Commission; and Deputy Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced plans to spend $2 billion on a 2GW pumped hydro scheme in the Snowy Mountains, in a move that will potentially drive a stake through the heart of the fossil fuel generation industry in Australia.

The move could be the most significant intervention in Australia’s energy markets in half a century.

By promoting pumped hydro, Turnbull is effectively signing the death knell for any new coal or gas fired generation built by the private sector, and is paving the way for a 100 per cent renewable energy grid, driven mostly by wind and solar

It also makes a reported and belated push for nuclear energy from members of his Coalition entirely redundant, because it removes the need to rely on “baseload” generation over the medium to long term.

Assuming this does go ahead at the scale advertised, the conversation around energy delivery will now shift from “baseload” to flexibility, and gas and coal will no longer be able to compete, on either cost or utility, over the medium to long term.

Indeed, the biggest beneficiary of this push into pumped hydro could well be solar PV and wind energy, which are now the clear leaders in energy costs, and their costs continue to fall.

By adding pumped hydro, and distributed battery storage (in homes, buildings and in electric cars), Australia can reach a 100% renewable energy target, possibly within a few decades.

The ANU’s Andrew Blakers, who last month released an analysis that showed Australia could reach 100 per cent renewable energy with solar, wind and pumped hydro, at a cost of around $75/MWh –cheaper than current wholesale prices – describes the move as a game changer.

He estimates that once this scheme is completed, Australia will be nearly half way to having enough pumped hydro and other storage to support a wind and solar grid.

“A 100 per cent renewable energy grid will require around 450GWh of storage,” Blakers told RenewEconomy.

“Pumped hydro is by far the cheapest in the wholesale market,” he says. But around half the storage needed will come in the form of battery storage “behind the meter”, paid for by homes, businesses and electric car owners, and through demand management.

* ?National Political Editor?Sydney??@simonbenson???

*
Senior opposition frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon has sounded a warning to Labor colleagues about the planned closure of four coal-fired power plants in the NSW Hunter region, claiming an “urgent­” transition to gas rather than renewables is needed to avoid an energy crisis for jobs and manufacturing.

Breaking ranks with Labor policy, the member for the seat of Hunter raised his concerns in the Labor caucus two weeks ago as the opposition faced pressure from the government over its 50 per cent renewable energy target and support for an emissions intensity scheme.

Mr Fitzgibbon, the opposition agriculture spokesman, said Labor could not afford to “get ahead of the public” on the issue of renewable energy or engage in “overreach” on climate change.

“We need investment in gas-fired baseload generators and the Hunter is the logical place to build them. The transmission lines are there, the workforce is there, and the land is there.

“But we need the fuel. We need to get more gas out of the ground and we can’t continue to sit back and allow gas prices to rise on the back of export contracts which are pricing our manufacturers out of the market.’’

“We have to also do more to get domestic gas out of the ground. The planned Queensland Hunter Gas Pipeline will track near to both Santos’s Narrabri CSG project and the Upper Hunter’s existing coal-fired generators. But the pipeline project doesn’t stack up economically without sufficient gas supply.’’

You would think that a multi millionaire like Malcolm would want to be Prime Minister for one of 2 reasons:

1. because he genuinely wants to & thinks he can make a difference  ; or

2. to serve his own ego

Looks like he's there for the latter

He just likes being PM

Although I don't trust Joel Fitzgibbon , his family have made millions out of NIB taking it to market , and his dismissal as defence Minister due to Chinese influence , 

i understand his wanting to promote his electorate . But given all that bit makes sense to use the gas we have under our feet , 

Malcolm's thought bubble is not a doubling of the hydro scheme but a pump and store scheme . 

This is where you have two dams separate by a height difference . Water flows and generates power . 

It the off peak period the generators go into reverse and pump the water back up to the higher lake . 

It has been looked at before it is expensive , I am still of the opinion that govts should not interfere with any market that we should let the market decide the cheapest form of generation . 

Why we sit on gad below our feet is beyond belief .

Malcom listen to Joel Fitzgibbons , Richo, Judith Stone , ect etc etc etc . Not the Greenie left who will never get more than 10 per cent of the vote all from inner city elite