RENEWABLES DISPATCHED

New subsidies for renewable energy will end in 2020 with energy retailers forced to meet reliability standards by purchasing dispatchable power — that is, power that can be turned off or on when needed — under a plan to be presented to the Coalition party room today.

Not officially unveiled, the plan formulated by cabinet has been widely leaked to the media. As expected, the Coalition has now dumped Dr Alan Finkel‘s recommendation of implementing a Clean Energy Target when the current Renewable Energy Target expires in 2020, failing to lock in what Labor has described as an essential component of any bipartisan energy plan.

Instead, retailers will be forced to meet both reliability and renewable standards, according to The Australian Financial Review, as part of a plan the government hopes will put downward pressure on prices while enabling Australia to meet its 2030 emissions targets, agreed to at Paris. The upshot is that retailers will effectively be forced to take a component of their mix from coal, gas, or hydro.

As part of the plan it is expected that Malcolm Turnbull’s former chief of staff Drew Clarke will be made chairman of the Australian Energy Market Operator.

There are contradictory reports regarding how the Coalition will move forward with its plan, given the likelihood of opposition in the Parliament. According to The Australian, Turnbull and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg will instead rely on existing rules and take the plan to the states.

CRISIS IN KIRKUK

Iraqi forces have entered the city of Kirkuk as part of an effort to reclaim a section of the country held by Kurdish forces since the ousting of Islamic State. The key city is outside of the region of Kurdistan, but local Kurds were able to take part in the recent unofficial referendum used by Kurdish leaders to bolster their claims of independence, to the chagrin of Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

As Iraq begins to deal with the aftermath of overcoming a major Islamist insurgency, the government in the Philippines has taken a step in the same direction, with two leaders of the Islamic State-aligned Abu Sayyaf group reportedly killed in Marawi, a city they helped capture.

On the other side of the world, grim news continues to emanate from Somalia, where the death toll from a weekend suicide bombing in Mogadishu is now, incredibly, at least 300. The mass killing has been widely blamed on al-Qaeda linked group al-Shabaab, though it is yet to claim responsibility. 

TODAY IS SO YESTERDAY

TV host Lisa Wilkinson has jumped ship, leaving channel Nine’s morning program Today after pushing to be paid the same as co-host Karl Stefanovic. Sources tell The Australian Stefanovic cops a sweet $2.1 million a year, while Wilkinson had been on a contract of $1.1 million.

Wilkinson will now move to Ten’s evening current affairs program The Project.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT

“When you’re an ex, the only way you can come back is if you’re drafted. And I think that’s a pretty rare and unusual business in politics. You’re talking about hypotheticals. The only way an ex could ever come back would be by way of a draft and that’s almost impossible to imagine.”

That’s what Tony Abbott told 2GB’s Ray Hadley yesterday, when asked whether he would consider returning to the leadership of the Liberal Party. The response of most Liberal MPs was the political appropriation of a certain Taylor Swift hit: we are never, ever, ever / getting back together.

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WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra: The Coalition holds a joint parties meeting.

Adelaide: Premier Jay Weatherill and Opposition Leader Steven Marshall speak at a police association conference.

Melbourne: Son of slain accountant Curtis Cheng will address the Victorian Parliament. Alpha Cheng will use the speech to discuss bigotry and racism.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Stop blaming Tony Abbott for Coalition’s deeper problems — Dennis Shanahan (The Australian $): “The Coalition hasn’t trailed Labor by an election-losing margin for more than a year because of Abbott talking about climate change and goats. Nor has Turnbull’s personal standing against Shorten slipped to its lowest level since April because of a perception of disunity created by the deposed Liberal leader.” 

No quick fix for businesses skewered by power prices — Jennifer Hewett (Australian Financial Review $): “No doubt Abbott will loudly disagree this is anywhere near enough while Labor is keen to depict a Prime Minister “caving in” to his troublesome backbencher. But Turnbull and Frydenberg are almost as keen to discredit Abbott’s approach as Shorten’s.”

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Australian neoliberalism meets its conqueror: electricity — Bernard Keane: “In short, instead of a market delivering efficiency and price competition for consumers and businesses, the NEM delivered a highly concentrated market in which dominant incumbents weren’t properly regulated and were given a free hand in behaving how they liked.”

Audio and video are the new ABC buzzwords, internal documents show — Emily Watkins: “It identifies five media trends it will be watching: machine learning and artificial intelligence; conversational user interfaces (CUIs); augmented and virtual realities; home hubs; and connected and self-driving cars.”

Social media policies just another weapon in the war on journos — Christopher Warren: “From a management perspective, a lack of clarity is a good thing. It gives a lot of space to respond to complaints by punishing the journalist. It makes it easier to slap the journalist than explain the principles of freedom of speech.”

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