Danger for PM in Paris pledge

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull will today vow to lock in Paris emissions reduction targets as law, sparking a rebellion in his own party room.

Nine years after energy policy led to Mr Turnbull being rolled as opposition leader for Tony Abbott, the Coalition is once again gripped in an internal battle over its best response to energy policy, and it will come to a head today in what is expected to be an explosive partyroom meeting.

Along with a commitment to underwrite new coal- fired power stations, Mr Turnbull will today tell the Coalition party room there will be legislation to cement the Paris emission reduction targets of 26 per cent.

His predecessor, Mr Abbott, and a group of National and Liberal MPs want the Government’s focus to be on cheaper electricity bills, not emissions, and are furious at the prospect of legislating the Paris commitment as part of the National Energy Guarantee.

Mr Abbott is likely to cross the floor on the emissions reduction legislation, along with former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and other Coalition MPs.

He said the Turnbull Government was at risk of becoming “toxic” among Liberal voters. Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg was yesterday frantically ringing dissenting Liberal and National MPs to try to win over their support to stop today’s partyroom meeting becoming a humiliating display of internal division.

Ministers said they had serious concerns about the NEG and would like the focus to be on lowering energy prices.

However, they said they were unlikely to speak out in the party room because they ultimately supported Mr Turnbull as leader.

One Liberal MP said legislating Paris targets “would be a tax on electricity”.

“If there is an emissions reduction target in the legislation, this would be explosive because we’d be locking the Paris targets in legislation with penalties if they were not achieved,” he said.

Liberal MPs say they’ve been railroaded and have not been given enough time to examine the detail of the most important piece of legislation that has gone through the Parliament to date.

Mr Joyce said the NEG should include promises to hit power companies who lift energy prices for households.

Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler said Labor would not support the NEG if the Government was promising taxpayer funding for a coalfired power plant.