Bowen said the Labor victory, which gave the party a majority in the lower house, represented a mandate for climate policy that led to the election. Bending over the Greens’ demands to veto coal and gas projects would be a betrayal of the electorate, he said.
“I find that argument a little weird,” he said. “He [Greens’] The argument is something like this, to put it too simply: “Congratulations on winning the election. The first thing we would like you to do is leave the rubbish of the policies you brought to the election.”
The Coalition went to the polls promising zero net emissions by 2050 and reducing emissions by 26 percent by 2030. The Greens want to reach zero net emissions by 2035.
Bowen rejected claims by the Greens and “Green Green” independent candidates that Labor went to the polls with weak climate targets and a low-target strategy.
He issued a more detailed energy policy than his opponents five months before the election, and the Coalition campaigned in fear that Labor’s climate policy would cost tens of thousands of jobs in coal mining and add 560 dollars on annual energy bills.
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“It does not take a policy with a goal and its levers and the safeguard mechanism, which can be tightly armed, that the [Coalition] he tried to do. It’s not a small goal. Is not. So I reject it. “
Bowen said he wanted to work with the private sector and avoid what Labor has argued were harmful interventions in the Coalition market that discouraged private investment. That included a $ 600 million pledge from former Energy Minister Angus Taylor for a publicly owned gas plant at Kurri Kurri in NSW.
“Reactive interventions are counterproductive,” Bowen said. “They were in what I call the ‘criminal march,’ calling on energy executives to justify the price increase.”
Energy costs are rising as a global energy crisis raises the cost of coal and gas. The Australian Industry Group, which represents some of the country’s largest energy users, has warned workers are facing “apocalyptic” price hikes that “threaten chaos for industry and pain for homes” .
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However, he said the energy reform agenda “is not one they can or should take on their own” and called on the industry to help support the transition to renewables and move away from fossil fuels. , which are affected by international markets.
“I have an old view … that capital markets and the private sector should determine what they finance and what they don’t,” Bowen said.
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