Lower power prices trump emissions: Aust Treasurer

CANBERRA: Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is confident Australians want his Government to prioritise cutting power prices over reducing carbon emissions.

‘‘The people of Australia want to see their power bills come down, and they want to see the Government take whatever measure possible to do that,’’ he told the ABC yesterday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared the coalition Government’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG) is dead, and ruled out enshrining Australia’s Paris Agreement climate change commitments in law.

He will disown most of the policy in a partyroom meeting when Parliament resumes this week, but wants to keep its reliability guarantee, default prices and measures to add new generation.

Mr Frydenberg said nobody was more disappointed than him, as the former energy minister, that the NEG had been laid to rest.

He said the Government had policies and a track record for bringing down emissions, but stressed reducing power costs was more important.

‘‘What you will hear from us, which you will not hear from the Labor Party, is that we will put reducing people’s power bills first, over emissions,’’ he said.

Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler said the Government had walked away from any attempt to agree to a bipartisan investment framework, as business had wanted, that would act against its power costs goal.