Labor has tried to lay bare Coalition schisms over emissions as the crossbench pushed for more preventative action on climate change.
A bill introduced by Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce to scrap Australia’s net zero emissions reductions goal returned to the House of Representatives on Monday after Labor allowed it to be debated again.
Though it is guaranteed to fail because it lacks the support of the government, the bill was seen as a chance to highlight divisions between some Nationals, who back repealing the target, and moderate Liberals, who believe it must be retained to show the opposition is taking climate change seriously.
Labor continued to twist the knife as Dickson MP Ali France, who sensationally ousted former opposition leader Peter Dutton from his seat at the May election, took to the floor.
“In May, Aussies made a very clear statement to the world that Australia is the place to do business if you’re looking to use clean energy to create prosperity,” she said.
“That is why this bill is so bizarre – it goes against the will of the people.”
At its annual convention in Brisbane at the weekend, Queensland’s Liberal National Party, which includes federal members of the Coalition, passed a resolution to abandon net zero by 2050.
And on Monday, federal LNP members Llew O’Brien and Garth Hamilton continued to decry the target.
While O’Brien clarified that climate change is real, he claimed the government was “engaging in one of the greatest acts of economic self-sabotage in the history of the nation”.
Hamilton, on the other hand, claimed the Australia’s “trial” of net zero emission policy hadn’t worked.
But data released by the government found Australia is tracking well to meet its 2030 target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent from 2005 levels.
Emissions have fallen by 1.4 per cent in the year to March 2025, meaning about 440.2 million tonnes were released – about 28 per cent below 2005 levels.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused the Coalition of wanting to return to the climate wars.
“It is defying what we see happening around us and defying the science,” he said in Canberra.
But even permitting the the net zero debate to go ahead amounted to a “clown show”, independent MP Zali Steggall said as she pushed for the government to better prepare communities for the impacts of climate change.
“Australia can’t afford to keep reacting after the damage is done,” she said.
Her proposal would require the government to develop a national plan to address the risks posed by climate change, undertake five-yearly national risk assessments and provide an annual progress report.
-AAP
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