Environment and energy debate: back to the future as old battlelines re-emerge

Environment and energy debate: back to the future as old battlelines re-emerge.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during
Question Time at Parliament House.

The cause? A surprising new fluidity in the Prime Minister's environmental, er... convictions.

For Labor, it's an intriguing prospect. Charting how the greenest of all Liberals, who lost his leadership for backing emissions trading in 2009 and crossed the floor to support it, has wound up as chief advocate of retaining coal.

In just months, Malcolm Turnbull has gone from pump-priming a so-called clean energy target, to presenting more as a renewable energy scaremonger pitching hard for the safe harbour of coal-fired power, and firing off Abbott-like taunts, "Black-out Bill" and "Brown-out (Mark) Butler”.

The expansive optimistic government that would honour voters with sophisticated arguments, has reverted to a narrow fear-invoking affair, its eye trained keenly on political dividends.

Read Mark Kenny’s comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “Environment and energy debate: back to the future as old battlelines re-emerge.”