While he has put his leadership ambitions on ice, Mr Joyce is continuing to defy government policy by pushing for federally funded coal-fired power in Queensland. He was joined by Queensland Nationals senator and Resources Minister Matt Canavan.
Senator Canavan became the first cabinet minister to break ranks with Mr Morrison, who on Monday dismissed the Queensland coal push as impractical. Mr Morrison said even if the government wanted to underwrite coal in Queensland, the state Labor government would veto it.
The government is trying to steer away from any mention of underwriting coal before the election because it is politically poisonous in states like Victoria. But like Mr Joyce, Senator Canavan said his concern was seats in Queensland, not Victoria.
‘Reliable, sustainable power for the future’
Mr Morrison again steered away from coal on Wednesday when pressed on the ruckus, to the point he did not mention it by name.
“What we need is reliable, sustainable power for the future to drive our industries. We all agree on that and we’re technology and resource agnostic when it comes to that. We want to see those projects come forward, we’ve already got Snowy Hydro 2.0 and the Marinus link which I announced a little while ago will be very important for Victoria,” he said.
“These projects will free up and provide the reliable baseload power that Australians, Victorians need and indeed north Queenslanders need.
“Our plans are about supporting the development of commercially viable and feasible baseload power all around the country. It could be gas, it could be hydrogen, it could be any number of sources of energy, it can be hydro as we have said and it can be other traditional sources. But at the end of the day, we’re about getting lower power prices.”
Mr Morrison claimed the coal war had been put to rest by Mr Joyce’s partial retreat.
“Barnaby put this matter to rest this morning. He’s a passionate fellow, there’s no doubt about that and I think he settled those issues down this morning in the comments he’s made about his missteps earlier in the week,” he said.
Mr Joyce also received a call from NSW Nationals leader and Deputy Premier John Barilaro on Tuesday, asking him to calm down because he was jeopardising NSW re-election chances on March 23.
from Just News Viral https://ift.tt/2CjeDbF
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