Canberra: Malcolm Turnbull has said the government has “no plans” to fund a coal-fired power station, but refused to rule it out as part of a compromise to help a Clean Energy Target pass the Coalition party room.
Appearing on ABC’s 7.30 show on Monday, Turnbull defended his government’s legacy, saying its interventions in the energy market including gas export controls and funding for the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro feasibility study showed it was “protecting Australian jobs”.
With a rolling in-fight in the Liberal party on religious freedom, Turnbull hedged his bets saying the same-sex marriage postal survey was not a vote on religious freedom but the legislation that would follow a yes vote “will certainly have implications” for it.
Turnbull trumpeted the government’s legislative achievements including school funding reform, reintroduction of the building industry watchdog, tax cuts for small- and medium-sized businesses, and childcare reform. He said his government’s signature achievement was “ensuring that Australians have got the opportunities to realise their dreams, ensuring that we have a strong economy” citing jobs growth of 240,000 in the last year.
Asked if he had betrayed a commitment to free market principles, Turnbull conceded he had “intervened massively” in the gas market but said it had given him “no pleasure” to impose export restrictions, as the government did in April.
“I have had to take very strong, heavy-handed measures to protect Australian jobs ... I believe in protecting Australian jobs and in policy that is well-informed.”
Asked if the government was prepared to fund new coal-power stations as part of a compromise to pass the Clean Energy Target, Turnbull said the government had “no plans” to do so, and noted its “strong steps” in contributing $8 million (Dh29 million) to a feasibility study for the Snowy Hydro 2.0 pumped hydro scheme.
After a follow-up, he refused to rule out funding coal but repeated that the government had “no plans” to do so, noting “there is a market out there with plenty of opportunities to fund additional energy infrastructure”.
The government has been under pressure from repeated public lobbying by senior Nationals to bring more coal into the electricity generation system.
The environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, has said new high-efficiency low-emission coal power plants have a role in the energy mix and the government is prepared to intervene in the market.
Turnbull said the government is aiming to respond by the end of the year to the Finkel review’s recommendation for a Clean Energy Target, citing the need to get a report from the Australian Energy Market Operator about the demand for baseload power first.
Asked what would happen if deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, is ruled ineligible to sit in parliament by the high court, Turnbull said he was confident the court would clear him but — if it didn’t — Joyce would win a by-election in New England and the issue would not bring down his government.
“The fact is we are very confident, based on the advice we have, that the court will conclude that where a person like Barnaby is an Australian citizen by reason of being born here, the fact that they have had conferred on them by the law of another country citizenship by descent will not disqualify them unless they have acknowledged or accepted that citizenship previously.”
Asked if he accepted Tony Abbott’s view that the same-sex marriage postal survey is also a vote on religious freedom or freedom of speech, Turnbull replied: “No, it is a vote on a question of principle — should same-sex couples be able to marry?”
He added, “the legislation that follows, assuming it is carried, will certainly have implications for religious freedom”, arguing the Coalition would be “much better able” to protect that freedom than Labor.
Although the government has not specified which bill will be used to legalise same-sex marriage in the event of a yes vote, Turnbull said Australians could “trust us to carefully consider those issues and make sure that religious freedoms are protected”.
Asked about the government’s continued poor run in the polls, having lost 18 Newspolls in a row, Turnbull said he was “very confident we will win the next election”.
Turnbull said his job was to deliver Australians “safety, opportunity, and to do so in a fair society that enables them to realise their dreams”. He accused Labor of offering “an anti-business, anti-investment, anti-jobs, politics-of-envy campaign, which will only set us back”.
