Malcolm Turnbull has blamed Labor for the energy crisis in Australia, saying its policies have squandered the country's natural resource opportunities.
The prime minister targeted Labor leader Bill Shorten's "incompetence" on energy policy in a speech to the Country Liberals annual conference in Darwin.
"Australia is a massive gas province, with huge offshore resources - many still to be developed... and of course, many onshore resources. But we have Labor governments that will not develop them," Mr Turnbull said on Saturday.
"You have, in the Labor Party, a party whose energy policies have taken us into an energy crisis. Where energy is too expensive and it's not reliable."
Mr Turnbull called for the Northern Territory Labor government to remove its moratorium on development of the Beetaloo Basin to open up gas opportunities.
He also took aim at South Australia for closing coal-fired power stations, and Victoria for not allowing gas exploration or development.
"The incompetence of the Labor Party in energy over a long period of time is hard to believe," he said.
"I mean Blackout Bill, fair dinkum, as my old dad would have said, 'He is so hopeless he could not find his backside with both hands'.
"It is incompetence on such a great scale."
