"I don't know whether we have the head of power to actually compulsorily acquire it, but I think it should be absolutely explored. And if we need legislation then that should be considered," he said. Mr Christensen said he had raised the issue with ministers and was told the intervention would require new laws. "I would encourage that, particularly if the only other option is we lose a coal-fired power station," Mr Christensen said. He stressed he wanted the federal government to operate the power plant, but selling it to a Chinese buyer was palatable. "If we need legislation then we should consider that": Nationals MP George Christensen. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "I don't like the idea of Chinese owning stuff, particularly if it's a state-owned enterprise, but the government could facilitate ownership to another party if the government doesn't want to own it," he said.

"We own Snowy right now, so it's not a new thing for the Commonwealth to actually own a power station." But Mr Frydenberg quickly rebuffed the idea. "The government's not about to nationalise the Liddell power station," he said on Thursday. "That being said, we are concerned about the impact on the reliability of our system from its proposed closure in 2022." Liddell's owner, AGL, would not comment on the proposal but pointed to its blueprint to replace the station's power output using a mix of gas generation, renewables and battery storage. Nationals MP Andrew Broad, who chairs the House of Representatives' Environment and Energy committee, said a compulsory acquisition was not the way to go, but the government could get involved in building an entirely new coal-fired facility.

A Liberal MP on that committee, Craig Kelly, said a compulsory acquisition of Liddell was a "very, very large step" but stressed: "We have to do everything we possibly can to keep it open." But he said the Turnbull government should firstly pursue AGL through the courts using previously untested arms of the Trade Practices Act. "There is arguably a case that you could at least run a test case under the new competition laws to force AGL to offer it to a competitor, to put it on the market," Mr Kelly told Fairfax Media. Mr Abbott and Mr Joyce raised questions during a party room meeting this week as to why the government wasn't doing more to facilitate the sale of Liddell to a buyer who would keep it open. It prompted a terse response from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who reminded the room that Liddell was an asset of a private company. Mr Abbott declined to comment to Fairfax Media.