Barnaby Joyce warns Tony Abbott over threat to cross Turnbull government

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has rebuked Tony Abbott for threatening to cross the floor of Parliament if any kind of clean energy target was pursued by the Turnbull government.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has warned
Tony Abbott against destabilising the Turnbull government. 

Mr Abbott spelt out his opposition to the one recommendation of the Finkel energy review that has not been embraced by the Coalition, saying it was "unconscionable for a government that was originally elected promising to abolish the carbon tax and to end Labor's climate obsessions to go further down this renewable path”.

"There should be no subsidies for further solar and wind because this is inherently unreliable and, again I say, we've got to move away from all this talk of renewable targets and have a reliable energy target," Mr Abbott told Sky News on Tuesday night.

The former Liberal prime minister said several MPs had "extremely serious reservations" about the government's clean energy target.

Read Stephanie Peatling’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Barnaby Joyce warns Tony Abbott over threat to cross Turnbull government.”

Tony Abbott warns against 'unconscionable' renewable target

Tony Abbott is reportedly threatening to cross the floor to vote against a clean energy target, warning Malcolm Turnbull it would be “unconscionable” for the government to do anything to further encourage investment in renewable energy.

 Tony Abbott has implied he could cross the floor, calling the
idea of supporting a clean energy target ‘unconscionable’. 

Abbott told Sky News on Tuesday evening the government had to address market failure by providing base-load power and building coal-fired power stations.

“If we can have Snowy 2.0, let’s have Hazelwood 2.0, and get on with it,” he said, drawing a comparison between the prime minister’s support for pumped hydropower and calls within the Coalition for a new coal-fired power station.

Read Paul Karp’s story on The Guardian - “Tony Abbott warns against 'unconscionable' renewable target.”