Committee for Ballarat has urged the federal government to give business certainty and support the chief scientist’s energy market review.
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Committee for Ballarat’s Janet Dore said corporations had stepped up and ahead of government action on renewable energy. Chief scientist Alan Finkel’s report has riled the Coalition’s conservative back bench, with MPs voicing their opposition to the proposed Clean Energy Target at a party room meeting on Tuesday.
Ms Dore said the report charted a “mid-course” and called on dissenters to “look at some give and take on entrenched positions.”
“It’s just not a green issue. It’s a business issue and it’s corporates that are leading this now. Who would have thought that Westpac would walk away from funding a major coal mine in Queensland? That was a business decision, not an environmental one.”
Ballarat MP Catherine King said Labor would offer bipartisan support to ensure a clear national policy on clean energy.
“While the Clean Energy Target proposed in the Finkle review is not Labor’s preferred option we have reached out to the government and offered support in the interests of at least getting some action on climate change and our crippling energy crisis.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has also called for a clear policy across party lines.
Mr Turnbull said on Wednesday there had been “too much politics, too much ideology, not enough economics, not enough engineering”.