The Coalition wants to shift the energy policy blame. Voters just want it fixed

Energy policy in Australia has been a casualty of glib three-word slogans. With this context in mind, a Liberal said to me recently he had a new five-word slogan for the prime minister on energy: leave it to the states.

 Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull needs more than partisan
 tunnel vision to clean up the energy mess Australia is in.

Too late, of course. Malcolm Turnbull, somewhat bravely, in the Humphrey Appleby sense, has taken on political responsibility for energy prices and network reliability – normally issues that state premiers get political heat about.

Having taken on the problem, the government now has to deliver, but whether it can is still moot.

There’s a further complication too, of course. Because he can’t blame the actual culprit for most of the contemporary problems in energy – problems that are now too profound to ignore and that culprit being Tony Abbott – Turnbull is seeking to blame Labor.

Read Kathrine Murphy’s story on The Guardian - “The Coalition wants to shift the energy policy blame. Voters just want it fixed.”