Sunday, November 26, 2017

ACTU – Turnbull fails on NEG at COAG

24 November 2017

Statement from ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:

The ACTU is extremely disappointed at the outcomes of today’s COAG Energy Council meeting,

The onus was on the Turnbull Government to provide significant further detail on its latest attempt at an energy policy and it has failed to meet our expectations

Despite Prime Minister Turnbull’s misunderstanding of the stakeholder letter from earlier in the week we have not and do not offer our unconditional support for the NEG.

We condemn the Turnbull Government’s refusal to benchmark the NEG’s effectiveness at providing lower power prices, improved use of renewable energy, lower carbon emissions and a Just Transition for workers and their communities against other policy options such as an Emissions Intensity  Scheme, which has been recommended by regulators and industry stakeholders, or a Clean Energy Target which was recommended by the Chief Scientist. This demonstrates that the entire policy development process has become a hostage to ideological over practical concerns.

Without being able to demonstrate real outcomes on these areas of key concern to working people the ACTU rejects Prime Minister Turnbull’s claim to our endorsement.

In the absence of detail from the government, modelling undertaken by independent organisations shows the policy has the potential to shut down the deployment of renewable energy, the good steady jobs of the new economy, and fail to have any real impact on lowering power prices or reducing emissions.

There has been no information provided on the impact of the NEG on employment in the sector or impacts on communities, nor has there been any commitment towards transitioning the sector in a just and equitable manner.

Prime Minister Turnbull’s premature and misguided claim to having our endorsement shows how threadbare this policy is and how desperate he is to find supporters.

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