Anthony Albanese urges Scott Morrison and Coalition to work with Labor on energy policy - ABC News

Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has urged the Coalition to work with Labor on a bipartisan energy policy, arguing the two sides do not need to agree on emissions targets to make progress.

Key points:

• Anthony Albanese will address the National Press Club today
• The Opposition Leader is expected to focus on energy during the speech
• He wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, saying Labor wanted to work with the Government

In a letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Mr Albanese said there was "much to admire" in the Government's so-called technology roadmap, released last month, but it was not a national energy policy.

"It is a roadmap that says where we are going as a country, but it doesn't answer the question of how we get there," he said.

"We have an opportunity to move beyond past partisan approaches to energy policy, to draw on the community's clear desire for more bipartisan approaches to difficult policy areas, and to finally deliver an enduring, effective and bipartisan energy policy for Australia."

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Mr Albanese said Labor would not push for a specific model for an investment framework and was not calling for a return to the National Energy Guarantee (NEG), dumped by the Coalition in the wake of Malcolm Turnbull's downfall, or the Clean Energy Target.

"However, to ensure the framework is enduring in the context of future scientific advice it must be scalable to different emission reduction targets by future governments," the letter said.

The Labor leader said his party would support the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS), which involves capturing carbon dioxide and burying it deep underground.

However he said those projects should not be funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) or the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), as recommended by a recent review, arguing support should not be diverted from renewables.

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Labor also remains opposed to the Emissions Reduction Fund, which pays organisations to reduce their carbon emissions, but Mr Albanese said the party would respect all contracts, including those relating to CCS.

Some Coalition MPs have called for the Government to look at establishing a domestic nuclear power industry, but Labor has again made it clear it does not back such a move.

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Mr Albanese is expected to discuss the letter when he delivers the latest in a series of so-called "vision statements" to the National Press Club on Wednesday.

He said it was "only by working together" that Australia could recover from the COVID-19 crisis and that disagreement over emissions reduction targets did not mean a bipartisan energy policy could not be reached.

The Coalition insists it is on track to meet its target of reducing emissions by 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.

In launching the technology roadmap, Energy Minister Angus Taylor said it was aimed at driving investment in low-emissions technologies, without putting extra pressure on the economy, and that more detail would be released later this year.

Labor has not made its 2030 goal clear but has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiW2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA2LTI0L2FudGhvbnktYWxiYW5lc2Utc3BlZWNoLW5hdGlvbmFsLXByZXNzLWNsdWIvMTIzODMwNjjSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTIzODMwNjg?oc=5

2020-06-23 15:43:41Z
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