Labor leader Bill Shorten will again extend an olive branch to Malcolm Turnbull over energy policy at the same time divisions between Liberal MPs have emerged with those in favour of change hitting back.
In a speech today to the Australian Clean Energy Summit in Sydney, Mr Shorten will suggest his shadow minister, Mark Butler, work alongside Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg in developing a clean energy target as proposed by Chief Scientist Alan Finkel.
Paraphrasing Mr Turnbull's controversial speech in London last week about Liberal Party policy philosophy, Mr Shorten will suggest the two major parties meet in "the sensible centre" to give energy investors the certainty they crave.
A CET – in which a set percentage of energy would have to be generated from a clean source – would operate from 2020, enabling a smooth transition towards cleaner energy while enabling Australia to meet its Paris climate change agreement to cut emissions by 2030 by 26 per cent to 28 per cent on 2005 levels,
But the policy proposal has become a proxy in the campaign by Tony Abbott to tear down Mr Turnbull's leadership and the former prime minister and others are opposed to its adoption.
Other Coalition MPs will support a CET so long as the definition of clean energy is set to include so-called clean coal, or High Efficiency, Low Emissions (HELE) technology.
On Monday, Victorian Liberal MP Sarah Henderson, whose seat of Corangamite has wind farms, hit back at colleague Craig Kelly who, on an almost daily basis, appears on Sky News to undermine the government and comment on energy policy. Last week, he claimed that renewable energy would kill people because it was driving up prices and householders were afraid to use the heating.
Ms Henderson said Kelly was "killing me with his humour".
"Craig's been a bit silly and what he's been saying is ridiculous. We need to have a very measured policy to ensure we deliver affordable energy, secure energy, and that we don't see the likes of the Labor Party implementing its policies.
"It's not the first time he's gone off the reservation but he's simply wrong."
Seeking end to policy wars
Labor went to the last election promising an emissions trading scheme in which pollution would be free up to a certain cap and then taxed afterwards.
While it is more rigorous than a CET in reducing emissions, Mr Shorten will say again today that Labor is prepared to dump the EIS for a CET if that puts an end to the policy wars. Because only investor certainty will guarantee supply and bring down energy prices.
"If the economic and environmental case stacks up, we're not going to get stuck in a hair-splitting argument about the difference between an EIS and a CET," he will say.
"This isn't about writing the government a blank cheque – bipartisan support for a bad deal isn't going to help anyone."
Mr Shorten first offered bipartisan support last month. Mr Turnbull rejected the offer as disingenuous.
