Election Diary: Taylor’s “implausible” claims, Morrison loves coal, Albanese backs EVs

Albanese visits Brisbane-based EV charger maker Tritium

Labor leader Anthony Albanese headed to Brisbane on Tuesday, to visit the site of Australian-based electric vehicle equipment maker Tritium.

Albanese used the visit to promote Labor’s energy and climate policy platform, which he said would embrace the increase uptake of electric vehicles.

“Scott Morrison said that electric vehicles would end the weekend. He said you couldn’t tow your trailer, you couldn’t tow your boat, all complete nonsense,” Albanese said.

“The delay, prevarication and inaction from this Government has meant that we’re missing out on opportunities. There’s such a thing as first mover advantage. Now, we’ve lost that. But what we need to do is embrace the action that is there from action on climate change, which will actually be good for our economy and good for jobs.”

“This is an example of the opportunity that is there from embracing the future, not being scared of it and not being terrified of it so to the point whereby you just dismiss the future,” Albanese added.

Morrison visits oil and gas giant Woodside

Meanwhile, prime minister Scott Morrison headed to the opposite side of the country, visiting oil and gas giant Woodside to announce a fresh round of fossil fuel subsidies.

Speaking from at a mining industry event in Perth, Morrison made clear the Coalition still backed the on going expansion of Australia’s fossil fuel industries.

“Europe reminds us starkly the importance of energy security to our national economic resilience and why it would be reckless in the extreme for Australia to relinquish our traditional energy advantage in gas and coal,” Morrison said.

“That’s not a new view of mine. I’ve always had that view.

While in Western Australia, Morrison announced a further $67 million in subsidies for carbon capture and storage projects.

CEC fact checks Taylor’s “implausible” claims on energy prices

The Clean Energy Council says the claims of federal energy minister Angus Taylor that Labor’s support for new transmission network infrastructure will lead to higher electricity prices are “implausible”.

In a fact check published on Wednesday, the peak body said investment in new transmission network infrastructure would unlock increased supply of low cost wind and solar generation, helping to reduce costs for consumers while also cutting greenhouse gas emissions – as previously outlined by AEMO.

Taylor’s claims that Labor’s energy policies would lead to higher electricity prices received front-page treatment in several News Limited papers on Tuesday. But the claims, which form the basis of a scare campaign, are based on ‘analysis’ that have not been released publicly.

“While some questions remain around the energy price reductions and jobs created by the ALP’s Powering Australia Plan, the fact that the policy is accompanied by extensive publicly available modelling conducted by a highly reputable industry analyst gives it a strong level of credibility,” the Clean Energy Council said.

Greens pledge to make gas producers pay fair share of tax

The Australian Greens have unveiled their plan for raising almost $100 billion in additional tax revenue, by strengthening the ‘super profits tax’ applied to offshore gas producers.

The Greens say they would ‘wipe’ the tax credits accrued by major gas companies, that would see them starting to pay tax on substantial revenues being generated by offshore gas operations.

“In just one year, 27 big gas corporations brought in $77b in income but paid no tax,” Greens leader Adam Bandt said in Karratha on Wednesday.

“When a nurse pays more tax than a multinational, something is seriously wrong.”

“The Greens will make big gas corporations pay their fair share of tax to help get dental into Medicare.”

The Greens say costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office show that the tax on gas producers would raise an additional $92.3 billion over the next decade.