Tony Abbott launches warning shot on climate policy

Tony Abbott has fired a telling shot across Malcolm Turnbull's bow, warning that any energy package agreed to in cabinet must also pass a party room wary of anything approaching a clean energy target or other subsidy scheme for renewables.

Warning shot on energy: former prime minister Tony Abbott,
 pictured with then-assistant treasurer Josh Frydenberg
at Parliament House in March 2015.

It came as the Turnbull government received more bad news in the fortnightly Newspoll series, prompting Mr Abbott to declare a future return to the leadership was possible but would occur only if he was drafted by colleagues, which he described as "almost impossible to imagine”.

Signalling that Coalition MPs will be no rubber stamp on energy, the dumped former prime minister said the backbench deserved "plenty of chance to digest" the formula.

Mr Abbott's blunt message sets the stage for another showdown over a policy area that has divided moderates and conservatives within the Coalition for a decade, and become a constant cipher for simmering leadership rivalries.

Read Mark Kenny’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Tony Abbott launches warning shot on climate policy.”

Path cleared for release of Turnbull's reliable energy package

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg -
he has failed Australians.

Malcolm Turnbull's long-awaited energy package will be released as soon as next week after the energy committee of cabinet approved the package on Wednesday, clearing a major hurdle to the policy's release.

The energy package will dump Chief Scientist Alan Finkel's proposal for a clean energy target and, instead, focus on a clutch of measures aimed at fixing reliability issues in the National Electricity Market, and improving electricity affordability.

The full cabinet is now likely to examine the package of measures next Monday ahead of the package being presented to the Coalition party room as early as Tuesday morning.

Along with resolving the same-sex marriage issue this year, finalising its post-2020 energy policy is a key political objective Malcolm Turnbull has set his government, and is seen within the Coalition as a necessary hurdle to be cleared if the government is to revive its fortunes in 2018.

Read the story by James Massola and Mark Kenny in today’s Melbourne Age - “Path cleared for release of Turnbull's reliable energy package.”

(It's time the Turnbull Government got serious about resolving Australia's energy crisis and within that made a genuine attempt to reduce Australia's carbon dioxide emissions. There is, sadly, no silver bullet solution rather, achievement of such a target needs a many facetted attack from societal behaviour to a serious and sweeping change about our approach to energy creation and its use.

One thing a bold and innovative government should be doing is building a renewable energy infrastrucfure in that it should be working toward making every premises, domestic and business, its own power station, through the use of solar and batteries, and wind, and a smart grid the draws both hydro and wave power, not to mention geothermal.

Beyond, thatit shoudl be helping Australians better understand how they can continue to lead fulfilling and complete lives while using less energy.

It won't be easy, it will be confrontational and controversial, but ultimately, comforting - Robert McLean)