Financial
Review, 19
December 2018:
NSW Climate and Energy
Minister Don Harwin vowed to push on with his crusade to "end the Canberra
climate wars" after federal minister Angus Taylor derailed his proposal to
plot a national pathway to net zero emissions by 2050 at an acrimonious Council
of Australian Governments' meeting.
Tempers flared at
the meeting of energy ministers in Adelaide after Mr
Taylor used an obscure procedural rule to block Mr Harwin's motion for a net
zero emissions pathway. A furious Mr Harwin said that if Mr Taylor was going to
use obscure procedural rules to block a motion supported by most state and
territory energy ministers "be it on your own head".
The bitter split between
the NSW and federal coalition governments comes as Gladys Berejiklian's NSW
Coalition government faces a March 23 election in which climate policy looms
large after voters sharply rejected the Morrison government's climate change
agnostic energy policies at the Wentworth byelection in October and the
Victorian state election in November.
Mr Harwin said in a
statement after the meeting: "I am very disappointed by the actions of the
federal government at COAG Energy Council in Adelaide today.
"The refusal, on
procedural grounds, to let the vital matter of restoring an emissions
obligation into national energy policy be discussed is extraordinary. NSW will
continue to pursue this critical matter with COAG Energy Council."
…..the NSW-federal
government stoush dominated the aftermath of the meeting as Mr Harwin told
reporters he was furious that "the Commonwealth used the rule book to try
and shutdown a discussion on emissions".
"As a sign of how
out of touch they are, they wouldn't let us have the discussion," Mr
Harwin said. "NSW is not giving up on this. It's absolutely imperative
that we end the Canberra climate wars. "
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