The energy dispute that counts most

One question shapes everything else in Australian energy and climate policy, but it is the hardest question for some to answer.

David Crowe.

Who will vote for federal laws to reduce carbon emissions by 26 per cent?

This is fundamental to the argument over the Turnbull government’s National Energy Guarantee and is coming to Federal Parliament in less than a week.

Federal Labor is yet to decide where it stands. Should it vote for the 26 per cent cut across the electricity sector, the target that underpins the energy guarantee? Or should it vote down the government bill in the belief that the target must be its policy of a 45 per cent reduction?

The bill to enact this cut will be put to the Coalition party room on Tuesday morning, shown to the states and territories on the same day and prepared for introduction to Federal Parliament soon afterwards.

Read the analysis from The Age by David Crowe - “The energy dispute that counts most.”