Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has reignited division within the Coalition over climate policy by launching a bid to repeal Australia’s net-zero emissions target.
Joyce on Monday presented a private member’s bill to scrap the 2025 reduction target.
This is despite the Coalition still being reviewing its disastrous May election loss before making formal policy decisions.
Joyce’s move is guaranteed to fail because it lacks the support of the government, which has a majority in the House of Representatives.
But it has opened a festering wound within the Coalition over its division on how to tackle climate policy.
More Coalition troops want net zero to be axed, but Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is standing firm as debate rages within the political partners.
Despite a growing number of Liberal politicians speaking out against stronger climate change action, she doubled down on waiting for the review.
“We’re going to bring all of those views together … to flesh out the different perspectives, the expert advice and, of course, focus on this government’s miserable failure when it comes to energy policy,” she told Sky News.
Asked about the political impact of dumping the climate target, Ley said she would not foreshadow the review’s outcome.
Many Liberal moderates want the net-zero target retained so the party is seen to be taking climate action seriously.
But Joyce said there was no reason why abandoning the targets should be off the table.
“This is not about leadership. This is not about trying to create some sort of discordant note,” he said ahead of the bill’s introduction.
“There’s not anything in this bill that the Coalition didn’t have the same position we voted for.”
Joyce has the backing of his former leadership rival Michael McCormack.
The two ex-deputy prime ministers are critical of Nationals leader David Littleproud’s handling of the aftermath of the election defeat.
The Coalition reunited at the end of May following a messy week-long split driven by divisions which included energy policy.
Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean, a former deputy leader of the NSW Liberal Party, said “political stunts are no substitutes for real policies”.
“The voters overwhelmingly gave their verdict on Labor’s climate policies, compared with the Coalition’s, and if Labor’s massive majority doesn’t send out mandate signals, well you’re probably not paying attention,” he said.
Littleproud’s leadership was contested after the election over the party’s adoption of the climate target.
Liberal MP Garth Hamilton has also backed Nationals MPs trying to jettison the climate target.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson launched her own bid to scrap net zero in the upper house on Monday.
But the Coalition largely stood united against the issue, with only Nationals senator Matt Canavan and firebrand Liberal Alex Antic voting with the minor party on the motion.
Canavan had said One Nation was “catching up” to his colleagues in the Nationals, specifically Joyce.
“I give him credit for doing this: he’s put it on the agenda, he’s dominating the media discussions,” he told the Senate.
“We are here to make laws, not just statements, so we’ve got to repeal this rubbish.”
Only five out of the Coalition’s 27 senators showed up for the motion. One was in the chair and exercised his right not to vote, while Liberal senators Jane Hume and Andrew McLachlan voted against it.
–with AAP
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