The tinkerbells are always upset when reality intrudes.
AUSTRALIAN Greens leader Christine Milne says the federal government was never really committed to closing down the nation’s dirtiest power stations.
Energy Minister Martin Ferguson on Wednesday announced Labor had abandoned plans to pay some coal-fired power generators to shut down, under its so-called contract for closure program.
Mr Ferguson said the government could not be satisfied that entering into such arrangements would give value for money.
Senator Milne told reporters in Hobart on Wednesday the decision was a “breach of faith”.
“It’s a breach of faith with the Australian community, a breach of faith with the multi-party climate committee and it really goes against the spirit of everything we have been trying to do,” she said.
Labor had put the “fox in charge of the hen house” by getting the energy minister to lead the contract for closure process.
“Martin Ferguson, I don’t believe, has tried very hard at all to achieve an outcome on contracts for closure and I don’t believe that in terms of the coal companies that they have tried very hard either,” Senator Milne said.
