Albanese Blasts Coalition Climate Policy as 'Rolling Mess,' Questions Leadership Discipline
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese launched a fierce assault on the coalition’s climate policy Monday, characterizing the opposition’s position as a confused mess designed primarily to preserve Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s leadership through Christmas rather than provide coherent energy policy for the nation.
Albanese, delivered an extensive critique of coalition climate messaging during a joint appearance with Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan in Melbourne, questioning whether the opposition understands its own position following a week of conflicting statements.
“Well, it’s difficult to work it out, isn’t it?” Albanese said when asked about the coalition’s net zero policy. “I mean, the Coalition can’t work out their net zero policy themselves.”
The Prime Minister cited conflicting accounts from shadow ministers about what policies were actually agreed during Liberal Party deliberations, noting that Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston indicated the Sunday announcement differed from decisions reached in Thursday’s shadow ministry meeting.
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“You’ve had Anne Ruston say that the policy that was presented on Sunday isn’t the same as the one that was presented and agreed to by the Liberal Party shadow ministry that was held on Thursday, and it’s again different from what was decided on Wednesday,” Albanese said.
He compared the coalition’s policy development unfavorably to organized sports training, suggesting the opposition demonstrates less discipline than professional athletes preparing for competition.
“I hope that the Hawks are more disciplined at a training run than this mob are as the alternative government of the country,” Albanese said, referencing Australian Football League team Hawthorn.
The Prime Minister raised fundamental questions about coalition policy mechanics, particularly regarding whether taxpayers would fund coal-fired power stations under the opposition’s technology-neutral energy approach.
“Are coal-fired power stations going to be taxpayer funded?” Albanese said, suggesting the coalition has failed to clarify basic implementation questions despite announcing its position.
He attributed current energy challenges partially to the previous coalition government’s failure to implement effective policies during their decade in office, claiming they announced 23 different energy policies without successfully landing any.
“We know that one of the things that my government is dealing with is that for 10 years they had 23 policy announcements on energy and they didn’t land one of them,” Albanese said. “Now we’ve had multiple different announcements over the last week.”
The Prime Minister highlighted contradictions between coalition commitments to remain Paris Agreement signatories while abandoning specific emissions reduction targets, arguing that Paris participation requires forward movement rather than backsliding.
“They say that they want to stay in Paris, but Paris is about the road to net zero and you can’t backslide, as Andrew Bragg said on Sky on Friday afternoon, and yet his leader is out there saying that’s precisely what they’re going to do,” Albanese said.
He noted that the coalition proposes abandoning the 2030 target included in Australia’s nationally determined contribution submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as the 2035 target subsequently submitted.
“To stay in Paris, it’s very clear that they can only go forward,” Albanese said. “That is, can only be increased, not decreased or got rid of.”
The Prime Minister characterized the coalition policy as nonsensical attempt to reconcile fundamentally incompatible positions within the Liberal and National parties, from climate change deniers to those accepting scientific consensus.
“It’s a nonsensical policy, all designed just to try and keep people who fundamentally disagree with each other from people who say that the science is completely wrong and climate change does not exist to try and get a policy consensus between that and people who understand the science,” he said.
He described the result as formless and incoherent, using culinary metaphor to emphasize the policy’s lack of substance.
“Instead they’ve got this blancmange, this mess, and so it doesn’t make sense,” Albanese said. “It doesn’t add up.”
The Prime Minister argued that policy uncertainty would produce higher electricity prices by discouraging investment in energy infrastructure that requires regulatory certainty to proceed.
“What that means, the tragedy of that is, is that we know what that means,” Albanese said. “It means higher power prices because you will have less investment because there’s no certainty under the coalition going forward.”
He contrasted coalition confusion with Labor’s single coherent policy framework built around net zero commitments and implementation mechanisms including the safeguard mechanism established by the previous government and the Capacity Investment Scheme.
“My government has one policy,” Albanese said. “We have net zero and we have paths to get there through the safeguard mechanism that was established by the former government and through the Capacity Investment Scheme.”
The Prime Minister highlighted household adoption of renewable energy technology, noting that 125,000 Australians installed batteries to capture solar panel output just since July.
“Australians know the cheapest form of new energy is renewables,” Albanese said. “That’s why the Liberals’ coalition policy is friendless.”
He claimed no energy experts support the coalition approach, characterizing it as lacking credible industry backing despite Liberal Party attempts to position it as economically responsible.
“There isn’t an energy expert in Australia coming out and saying this, whatever it is, will work,” Albanese said.
The Prime Minister explicitly linked climate policy to internal Liberal Party leadership tensions, suggesting the policy exists primarily to preserve Ley’s position rather than provide genuine energy solutions.
“It is just a policy to try and get the Leader of the Opposition through to Christmas as the Leader, in spite of the fact she is being undermined each and every day by her own colleagues,” Albanese said.
He referenced media coverage featuring Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor and Shadow Home Affairs Minister Andrew Hastie as examples of coalition members positioning themselves as potential leadership alternatives.
“What was the Angus Taylor double-page spread about in the Telegraph on Saturday and Sunday?” Albanese said. “Andrew Hastie is out there parading around as an alternative leader as well.”
The Prime Minister cited additional Liberal MPs including Melissa McIntosh as publicly promoting themselves, suggesting widespread internal discord threatens coalition discipline.
“And then you have other people like Melissa McIntosh and others all out there putting themselves forward,” he said. “There’s no discipline.”
Albanese argued that coalition disunity produces real economic consequences by creating investment uncertainty that business groups recognize as problematic.
“The problem isn’t that that’s academic,” he said. “The problem is there are consequences behind that uncertainty, which is why the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry Group, all of the energy experts say that it is a mess.”
He criticized coalition proposals involving the Australian Energy Market Operator, suggesting the opposition expects AEMO to support coal-fired power stations despite the organization’s consistent reports identifying renewables as the cheapest new energy source.
“They have the policy about the Australian energy market operator, that somehow they’re going to get them to be funding or supporting coal-fired power stations,” Albanese said. “AEMO have been very clear about what the cheapest form of new energy is in report after report after report.”
The Prime Minister characterized his government’s policy as based on AEMO analysis supporting renewables backed by gas, storage, and hydro through the Capacity Investment Scheme framework.
“That’s what the capacity investment scheme is all based upon,” he said. “Renewables backed by gas, backed by storage, backed by hydro.”
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