Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull will not legislate to lock in Australia's emissions reduction target, as he had originally planned less than a week ago, in what is being viewed as a major capitulation to his own party's right flank.
At the start of last week Turnbull said that the 26% target for emissions reduction – part of the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) – had to be legislated in order to stop future governments changing it at a whim.
"Now, we believe in democracy," Turnbull said. "We believe the parliament should have a say in this and so if we legislate that, then a subsequent government – whether it's of our side of politics or the other – would have to persuade both houses of parliament to make any change to it, and that is a great security."
By last Friday, however, when Coalition MPs began talking about a potential move against the prime minister over the NEG, Turnbull changed his policy to allow it to be changed by regulation.
That didn't quell the talk of a leadership challenge, with supporters of home affairs Peter Dutton reportedly urging the minister to take Turnbull on. Dutton, meanwhile, said that the PM had his full support, for now at least.
In a press conference on Monday, Turnbull announced that the government had abandoned any plans to legislate the emissions reduction target until he had the numbers in parliament.
"We propose bills in the house when we believe we can carry them, and so at the moment we don't have, because it is a one seat majority, that's a fact of life, we don't have enough support to do that," he told journalists.
Turnbull said he hadn't discussed directly with Labor whether the opposition would vote for the legislation in its current form.
"The reality is that Labor's position is quite clear," the PM said. "They want to push electricity prices up. They want to have a 45%, you know, emissions reduction rate as opposed to the 26% that's in the National Energy Guarantee legislation," he said.
Worth reading all three captions on screen. Reminder it’s winter. #auspol
Shadow environment minister Mark Butler said at a Monday press conference the government had rebuffed requests from Labor for briefings on the NEG: "We had a briefing scheduled for last Thursday. That briefing was cancelled by the government and after a number of times where we have tried to have that briefing rescheduled, we have heard nothing from the government at all."
Opposition leader Bill Shorten said it wasn't clear what the policy actually was anymore.
.@billshortenmp: @TurnbullMalcolm thinks bipartisan is getting the two wings of his party to agree. I say to Turnbull – you have my number. I am willing to put aside party politics just to do something to lower energy prices. MORE: https://t.co/GdbCnxKRUn #SkyLiveNow https://t.co/bjH8DCxZy1
"If you know what his latest policy is, could you let us know?" he said. "He keeps changing his mind every day. The real problem is Mr Turnbull believes bipartisanship is when he can get the two wings of his own party to agree, he is not talking about us."
Some Coalition MPs are supporting the PM's shift in policy. Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce said that the move to focus on electricity prices instead of emissions reduction targets was the right decision.