Penny Wong warns dropping 2030 climate targets would increase energy bills and abandon Pacific nations
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has labelled the Coalition's decision to rule out setting a 2030 climate target as a move that will increase Australian energy bills and risk further Chinese influence in the Pacific.
Her comments came as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Labor of forcing pensioners struggling with high living costs to decide between heating or eating this winter.
But Senator Wong, a former climate change minister, told the ABC's Insiders that walking away from climate action would bring with it greater energy bills.
"It is mind-bogglingly absurd for him to suggest that more uncertainty will do anything other than increase costs," she said on Sunday morning.
"His policy is a policy that will lead to higher electricity bills for Australians."
Mr Dutton this week ruled out setting an emissions target ahead of the next election, insisting Australians were more concerned about their living costs than climate policies.
Speaking on Sky on Sunday morning, Mr Dutton insisted that his party remained committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
He said the Coalition was considering either six or seven sites for nuclear power plants, which he argues would help Australia reach its emissions targets in future decades.
But he said the government needed to do more to bring gas into domestic markets immediately.
"There are pensioners this winter who are eating or heating but not both," Mr Dutton said.
"I am not going to contribute to further agony for Australians that the prime minister is imposing on them at the moment.
"That will be a big difference between the two parties as we go into the next election."
Mr Dutton repeatedly said this week that Labor's 2030 target would harm Australian families, who along with businesses were already doing it tough with high energy bills.
Business groups have urged the Coalition to stick to Labor's 2030 target if it wins the next election.
Senator Wong said 24 coal stations announced closures under the Coalition government.
She said the Coalition's policy would risk investment in new energy production as old technologies left the market.
"Peter Dutton abandoning climate change means higher prices at home and it means he yet again abandons the field in the Pacific," she said.
Battle for the Pacific
Senator Wong's comments came as Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in Australia for the first visit of its kind in seven years.
After Mr Li leaves, Senator Wong will head with six ministers to Papua New Guinea, where she says it is important for Australia to engage.
"It is incumbent upon governments to ensure they place Australia in the best position possible," Senator Wong said.
"The reality is Mr Dutton and his colleagues did not do that over 10 years so we are where we are, which is a permanent contest."
Senator Wong repeatedly noted there was a "permanent contest" in the Pacific, with "others" having filled the space Australia left behind under the Coalition.
While not naming China, that is the country Australia is vying against to be Pacific nations' partner of choice.
She said Pacific nations still raised with her Mr Dutton's comments from 2015, when he joked about water lapping at the door on island nations.
"We are now in a position where Australia is a partner of choice but the opportunity to be the only partner of choice has been lost by Mr Dutton and his colleagues and we're in a state of permanent contest in the Pacific," Senator Wong said.