Ley ‘confident’ as net-zero rift tests her leadership
Zac de Silva and Grace Crivellaro |
The opposition leader has dismissed suggestions she should be worried for her job after senior Liberal rivals who are pushing for net-zero policies to be dumped were seen dining together.
Liberal leader Sussan Ley said she had never supported “net-zero at any cost” when asked if she was prepared to ditch the emission-reduction goal for 2050 in a bid to save her leadership.
“There are a lot of different opinions in our party room,” she told ABC TV on Wednesday.
“I said I wouldn’t make captains’ calls. I’m doing exactly what I said I would do.”
Internal division over the coalition’s energy policy has been supercharged after junior partner the Nationals announced they were abandoning the party’s commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
The move, followed by a dire poll revealing support for the Liberals had hit historic lows, has prompted speculation Ms Ley’s days in the party’s top job may be numbered.
Her two chief leadership rivals, Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor, were seen out for dinner with a group of conservatives on Tuesday night, adding to the rumours her time at the helm is under imminent threat.
But Ms Ley said she was “completely confident” her job was safe.
“Can I just say people are actually quite chummy across my party … and actually sometimes do catch up in Canberra sitting week for dinner,” she told Nine’s Today program during a morning media blitz.
Liberal MPs and senators will meet in the next fortnight to thrash out the final details of an energy plan after rifts were exposed about what direction the coalition should take after Labor’s landslide election win in May.
Phillip Ruddock, the second-longest-serving MP in Australian history, questioned the Nationals’ decision to go their own way on the issue.
“The idea that you meet separately and say this is our stand, and if you don’t like it you’re on your own, is not a very sound coalition,” he told AAP.
“I am of the view that you do best when you have a team and not a team of champions,” Mr Ruddock said.
A date is yet to be locked in for the Liberals’ meeting on energy policy, although November 23 has been flagged as it is the Sunday before the final parliamentary fortnight of the year.
MPs want the debate sorted before parliament rises.
Party insiders have also played down the prospects of a near-term leadership spill over the issue.
Moderate Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said Australia would become a “pariah state” if it ditched its 2050 target.
Fellow frontbencher and moderate Tim Wilson said Ms Ley needed to stand up for the Liberals and their right to make their own decisions on policy to avoid becoming “the National Party-lite”.
Ms Ley said she wouldn’t “comment on commentary” when asked about her colleagues’ remarks.
AAP
