But with the socially progressive and economically conservative Ms Steggall making climate change a key point of difference in the Warringah campaign, Mr Abbott has backflipped again.
He rationalised his backflip by saying that under a new Prime Minister and Energy Minister, the government no longer had an “emissions obsession”.
“We can meet our Paris targets without substantial policy change and without significant additional costs on the economy.”
‘All hell will break loose’
When Mr Abbott called for Australia to withdraw from Paris last year, it was because other countries aligned with the US had done so.
After supplanting Mr Turnbull, Mr Morrison dumped the National Energy Guarantee which was used as the trigger to bring down Mr Turnbull. Mr Morrison recently announced a $2 billion extension to Mr Abbott’s emission reduction fund and $1.38 billion to help build Snowy 2.0.
The latest backflip coincided with a revolt by Queensland Nationals developing into a plausible threat to roll Mr McCormack when Parliament sits briefly in April for the budget and before the election is called.
Nationals MPs say that unless the government allows the lower house to vote on legislation enabling the forced divestment of energy companies, and that the government also commits before the election to underwriting a coal-fired power station, “all hell will break lose”.
Mr McCormack, who is blamed for not standing up to the Liberals last month when the divestment legislation was shelved until after the election, is quickly losing support. Mr Joyce told the local paper in his seat of New England on Friday he would stand if a spill was called.
“If it was called open, of course I would stand,” Mr Joyce said, adding that he would not instigate the spill.
The drama coincided with Mr Turnbull telling the BBC in London overnight that those who brought him down did so because they feared he would win the election.
“As I said at the time, it was essentially a form of madness that occurred, whipped up internally and also amplified by voices in the media,” Mr Turnbull told the Politics Live program.
Statistically even
“Basically, you could argue that their concern was not that I’d lose the election but rather that I’d win it.”
Mr Turnbull said while he had been behind in the polls for a long time, at the time of his removal, the government was so statistically even.
“We had essentially drawn even, and in our own polling in the marginal seats, which is obviously the only ones that matter, you know, in terms of determining government, we were ahead,” he said.
He said Mr Morrison was in a “worse position” than he was in when the coup happened.
Mr Turnbull also used Twitter to accuse Mr Abbott of idiocy during the debate with Ms Steggall after Mr Abbott called for subsidised coal-fired power and claimed it was the cheapest form of baseload power.
“But it isn’t,” Mr Turnbull tweeted.
“Today the cheapest form of new dispatchable or baseload energy is renewables plus storage. We are now able to have lower emissions and lower prices but we need to plan it using engineering and economics rather than ideology and innumerate idiocy.
“The reason the fossil-fuel lobby and their apologists rail against Snowy Hydro 2.0, and have tried to stop it, is because it delivers the massive storage which does make renewables reliable and thus enable our progress to lower emissions and lower energy prices.”
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