Malcolm Turnbull dumps key climate policy to stave off leadership revolt

Australian Prime Minister Abandons Climate Targets, Bowing to Party Pressure

Quick Knowledge.com

20 August, 2018

SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia abandoned plans for emission targets Monday, bowing to pressure from conservatives who considered toppling Mr. Turnbull’s government over an energy policy that aimed to reduce prices and bring the country into line with international climate change commitments.

Mr. Turnbull, who looked tired after a weekend of negotiating with colleagues, told reporters Monday morning that the energy policy bill, known as the National Energy Guarantee, would not be introduced in the House of Representatives because there was not enough support.

“We are not going to propose legislation purely for the purpose of it being defeated,” he said.

Critics immediately called that claim inaccurate, noting the proposal had support from other parties. But whatever its chances, the defeat spurred intense speculation about Mr. Turnbull’s future and frustration among those increasingly worried about Australia’s vulnerability to climate change and its effects, from extreme drought to bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef.

“All it does is reconfirm that they have no interest in doing anything about climate change or the Great Barrier Reef really,” said Jon Brodie, a well-known coral reef scientist at James Cook University.

The energy plan’s climate change element — a commitment to reduce energy emission levels in 2030 to 26 percent below the levels recorded in 2005 — was not wildly ambitious. It matched the target Australia set for the entire country in the Paris climate agreement, meaning that agriculture and other industries would still have to do more to meet the nation’s commitments under the deal.

The energy guarantee was at least the third attempt by Mr. Turnbull to devise an energy policy that included a path toward reducing emissions. Its failure showed that at least for now, the science of global climate change has again been pushed aside by the relentless scrum for power in Canberra.

[Read More: What was the National Energy Guarantee in the first place? A “NEG” explainer.]

Mr. Turnbull has been battling accusations of weak leadership ever since he toppled Tony Abbott in a 2015 leadership challenge. But with recent polls suggesting the opposition Labor party would win an election if it were held today, he has become increasingly vulnerable.

Zareh Ghazarian, a lecturer in the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University, said that many lawmakers in Mr. Turnbull’s party — which holds only a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives — fear defeat in the election expected to be called between now and next year.

The lawmakers see electricity prices as an important campaign issue and they are eager, he said, for something that will address voter discontent and indifference.

“There is a concern that the overall message of the government is not being listened to,” Mr. Ghazarian said. “There is a sense that no one is really listening to Malcolm Turnbull.”

Whether Mr. Turnbull is toppled or not, the internal frustration plays into well-established feuds and volatility.

Neither Mr. Abbott nor other conservatives in the party have every fully accepted Mr. Turnbull, a cosmopolitan former investment banker whose policy achievements include legislation legalizing same-sex marriage.