April 4, 2018
Member for Flynn Ken O’Dowd has revealed he is a member of the so-called Monash Forum, a group of 20 conservative pro-coal MPs who have been meeting privately in Canberra.
The Australian newspaper revealed the existence of the group on Tuesday, which also allegedly includes former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz and backbenchers George Christensen (LNP) and Kevin Andrews (Liberal).
Former National Party leader Barnaby Joyce has also been named as a member.
The Guardian newspaper suggested the new group – named after World War I general Sir John Monash – was made up Liberal Party members who had been meeting for some time as the “Monkey Pod” now joined by some Nationals’ MPS.
(The “Monkey Pod” was named after the type of table in the room where they met.)
According to a manifesto published by News Limited on Tuesday, the Monash Forum has been agitating for a new low-emission power station to be built on the site of the old Hazelwood power station in Victoria.
Mr O’Dowd told the Gladstone Observer on Wednesday he was a part of the group.
However, Mr O’Dowd said any new high-efficiency low-emission coal-fired power station should be built at Gladstone.
“We’ve got coal at our doorstep, we’ve got salt water to do the cooling – places like Tarong have to have water pumped – and we have the overhead network already in place,” he told the Observer.
“We’ve got to get (coal-fired power stations) on the agenda because it takes a while to plan them and then another while to build them.”
