Nats ‘steers’ rumbling in party paddock over net zero
Dominic Giannini |
A powder keg has been dropped within the coalition over climate policy as dissenters push for a net zero emissions target to be dropped.
Opponents of the 2050 target are ramping up pressure on their leaders to ditch the target, saying it’s hurting regional Australia and driving up power bills as Australia phases out coal and boosts renewable energy investment.
The debate reignited after former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce flagged a private member’s bill to scrap the legislated target.
“The last two elections we went forward with a policy supporting net zero and we’ve been handed our political derriere on a plate,” he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
He argued Australia should focus on economic viability with big emitters like China, India and the US not making major cuts to emissions while Australia’s power prices increased.
India has a net zero by 2070 target, China by 2060 and the US had a 2050 target under the Biden administration but climate action has been largely scrapped under President Donald Trump.
“Even if you believe every chapter, verse, what net zero was going to achieve, it’s not going to achieve it because the world’s not participating in it,” Mr Joyce said.
“So why are we on this sort of singular crusade by ourselves that has no effect on the climate but is incredibly deleterious to the standard of living and the cost of living of the Australian people – it’s insane.”
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley refused to say whether the target will remain coalition policy as a review into its policies continues following their May election defeat.
Liberals largely want to keep the net zero emissions policy; they lost a swathe of inner city seats amid concerns they weren’t taking climate change seriously enough.
“The electorate has told us in multiple elections that this is what they want, and we do have an obligation to leave the planet in a better place,” Liberal senator Jane Hume told AAP.
Labor has seized on the split over climate policy, with Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen saying the Liberals are being held hostage by their junior coalition partner.
Mr Joyce has been joined by an unlikely ally in Michael McCormack, another former Nationals leader whom he rolled for the job in 2021.
But the two have broken bread over a shared disdain for current leader David Littleproud after both were dumped from his frontbench.
Mr Joyce, who was rolled by Mr Littleproud after the 2022 election loss, said he’d support a leadership bid by Mr McCormack, which he hasn’t ruled out but acknowledged no imminent challenge.
Mr McCormack denied the duo are white-anting their leader, arguing he’s standing up for regional Australians who are bearing the negative impacts of renewable energy projects on their land and near their towns.
Despite the duo touting leadership troubles for Mr Littleproud, other Nationals MPs hosed down the speculation, saying the talk was from a vocal minority aggrieved over climate policy and personal snubs.
Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan compared the two Nationals MPs railing against their leader as “two steers in a paddock”.
Mr McCormack said he took umbrage with the comments, joking that steers had been emasculated and he was “quite virile and ready to go as far as politics is concerned”.
AAP
