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Liberal showdown over net zero · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, November ten, twenty twenty five. The Family Court
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  Speaker 1: judge whose landmark ruling made puberty blockers more accessible to
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  Speaker 1: gender dysphoric children says she now has doubts about her decision.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, former Family Court Chief Justice Diana Bryant
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  Speaker 1: accepted expert evidence puberty blockers were a safe and reversible option,
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  Speaker 1: but now she believes it's up to parliaments to put
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  Speaker 1: regulations in place rather than relying on disputes before the courts.
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  Speaker 1: Another day, another data hack, and this time the Australian
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  Speaker 1: Defense Force is at the center of the breach. Blueprints
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  Speaker 1: for high tech fighting vehicles might have been delivered into
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  Speaker 1: the hands of adversaries who could use them to develop
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  Speaker 1: effective countermeasures. Those exclusive stories alive right now at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot Au. The Liberal Party is bitterly
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  Speaker 1: divided between those who believe they can save net zero
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  Speaker 1: and those who wish it dead and buried. They'll meet
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  Speaker 1: in Camber this week to decide on their policy once
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  Speaker 1: and for all, and Susan Lee's leadership hangs in the balance.
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  Speaker 1: That's today's episode.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I will do the right thing, but
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  Speaker 2: my view is that we won't get to that because
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  Speaker 2: I don't believe that my colleagues want Australia to be
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  Speaker 2: ranked with those baddies.
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  Speaker 1: This is the Opposition Housing spokesman Andrew Bragg on the
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  Speaker 1: ABC's Insiders program on Sunday. He's talking about the issue
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  Speaker 1: that's tearing the coalition apart, net zero, and he says
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  Speaker 1: Australia will be in some pretty dicey company if his
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  Speaker 1: party abandons a missions reduction scheme.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think we can give up on it. Our
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  Speaker 2: policy has to be to make it actually work. I
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  Speaker 2: think we're all in leadership roles and it's important that
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  Speaker 2: we don't give up on things that are hard.
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  Speaker 1: But what would you do well, I.
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  Speaker 2: Don't imagine that Australia is going to be in a
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  Speaker 2: grouping with Azerbaijan, Iran and Syria.
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  Speaker 1: Andrew Bragg is a believer in net zero. He and
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  Speaker 1: his fellow moderates want the Liberals to commit to a
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  Speaker 1: plan that would help us reach net zero emissions in
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  Speaker 1: the second half of this century. The goal is to
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  Speaker 1: remove as much greenhouse gas from the Earth's atmosphere as
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  Speaker 1: we produce by transitioning to renewables and investing in reforestation
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  Speaker 1: and carbon capture and storage. But some of Bragg's Liberal
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  Speaker 1: Party colleagues, like Senator Sarah Henderson don't want to hear
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  Speaker 1: about it.
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  Speaker 3: I strongly believe that we need to resolve our position
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  Speaker 3: very very quickly, as it's a I think well known.
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  Speaker 3: I vehemently oppose NIT zero in all of its guys,
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  Speaker 3: as it's sending our country backwards. It's causing enormous environmental
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  Speaker 3: and economic harm. And the Nationals have done.
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  Speaker 1: Up valconvene at a special Party room meeting in Canberra
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  Speaker 1: on Wednesday to thrash it out.
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  Speaker 4: So at the moment we're debating the interpretation of the
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  Speaker 4: Paris Agreement and whether to retain two words in the
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  Speaker 4: policy platform.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Brown is the Australian's chief political correspondent.
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  Speaker 4: In many ways, it's the fight they had to have.
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  Speaker 4: It was the fight they really had to have in
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  Speaker 4: the last term after they lost in twenty twenty two,
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  Speaker 4: and they ended up not having any debates really, which
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  Speaker 4: I think was a big mistake, and then they papered
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  Speaker 4: over all their divisions with the nuclear policy if you're
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  Speaker 4: a member. So that was something that the whole party
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  Speaker 4: agreed with. So they just put aside the divisions on
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  Speaker 4: netzer by twenty fifty and they all got behind this
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  Speaker 4: nuclear agenda that they had. So really it's coming to
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  Speaker 4: a head in a way that it is uglier than
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  Speaker 4: it needed to be because it's had that waiting time,
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  Speaker 4: and also the party's being led by a leader who
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  Speaker 4: only just won a ballot. There is a lot of
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  Speaker 4: anger within the Moderate faction, the supporters of Susan Lee
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  Speaker 4: about her handling of this issue. They think that she
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  Speaker 4: could have come out very quickly, similar to what she's
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  Speaker 4: done with tax cuts, and said we will retain that
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  Speaker 4: zero under my leadership, but not at any cost, and
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  Speaker 4: we'll look at exactly how that will manifest itself. But
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  Speaker 4: by leaving it completely open, they think that it allowed
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  Speaker 4: the anti net zero forces to gain momentum and get
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  Speaker 4: it to a stage where it's a very good chance
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  Speaker 4: of being dumped. What we're reporting in the paper on
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  Speaker 4: Monday is that the Moderate a proposing a way to
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  Speaker 4: keep net zero, which is net zero the Australian Way,
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  Speaker 4: which would not link net zero to a timeline and
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  Speaker 4: would be very much about pragmatism and getting more gas
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  Speaker 4: out of the ground and a technology agnostic approach and
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  Speaker 4: get a sense of patriotism to it, that we're not
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  Speaker 4: just going to go to net zero for the reasons
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  Speaker 4: of Paris and the international community just for the sake
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  Speaker 4: of it, that we will do it the Australian way.
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  Speaker 4: But there is a view from Conservatives that this argument
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  Speaker 4: has just been put too late and basically the party room,
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  Speaker 4: according to what the Conservatives are say in the party room,
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  Speaker 4: as pretty well coalesced around a decision to drop net zero.
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  Speaker 1: Andrew Bragg said on Sunday he wouldn't abandon his principles
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  Speaker 1: if his party abandons net zero or agrees to leave
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  Speaker 1: the Paris Agreement. It's an international agreement signed by Australia
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  Speaker 1: just under a decade ago to limit global warming to
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  Speaker 1: two degrees celsius by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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  Speaker 4: So he's saying he'll quit the front bench. The question
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  Speaker 4: was put to him about retaining net zero and leaving Paris,
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  Speaker 4: and he it feels like he grabbed onto the Paris
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  Speaker 4: element of that and said, yeah, well, get sure, I'll
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  Speaker 4: leave the front bench if that's the case, but I
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  Speaker 4: think there's a legitimate interpretation that he was asked about
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  Speaker 4: net zero as well, and he said sure. I think
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  Speaker 4: there is still a question about whether they come out,
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  Speaker 4: they stay in Paris, but they drop net zero, whether
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  Speaker 4: he does leave all together. But certainly there is a
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  Speaker 4: fierce battle being plagued by the likes of himself, Dave
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  Speaker 4: Sharma and other leading moderates who were working very hard
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  Speaker 4: behind the scenes to keep net zero going. And I
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  Speaker 4: think a real blow for them is it's not just
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  Speaker 4: some of the leading conservatives who were open to net
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  Speaker 4: zero who have now shifted, people like James Patterson and
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  Speaker 4: Angus Taylor, they shifted their support away from net zero.
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  Speaker 4: It's also some of the key powerbrokers that are crucial
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  Speaker 4: for Susan Lee's leadership who are not in that faction.
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  Speaker 4: So you've got Alex Hawk from the center right, and
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  Speaker 4: then you've got James McGrath who's from the centrist faction
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  Speaker 4: in Queensland. So the fact that it's multi factional now
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  Speaker 4: I think is a bigger problem for the moderates.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you've written for The Australian that Andrew Bragg is
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  Speaker 1: a key supporter of Susan Lee's what does the future
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  Speaker 1: hold for her if she can't hold on to the
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  Speaker 1: people who do back her much less the people who don't.
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  Speaker 4: Well. I think this is a crucial question because some
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  Speaker 4: in the Moderates are worried that not only will they
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  Speaker 4: lose net zero, but if they then cause too much
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  Speaker 4: havoc for Susan Lee and then they lose a leader
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  Speaker 4: who's typically sympathetic to them as well, and all they
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  Speaker 4: end up with is no net zero and Angus Taylor
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  Speaker 4: as leader, the Moderates pull their support to her all together,
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  Speaker 4: I think is unlikely. However, I think no matter how
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  Speaker 4: this goes on Wednesday, Susan Lee's leadership will face significant strain.
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  Speaker 4: It's already under a lot of strain, and I think
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  Speaker 4: the Conservatives are threatening mayhem if there's any retention at all,
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  Speaker 4: even in a vague way of net zero. So I
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  Speaker 4: think she's got a lot of tough days ahead.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. Does the conservative math on net zero add up?
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  Speaker 1: Senator Sarah Henderson said on Friday the opposition's support of
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  Speaker 1: net zero has hurt them in the last few elections.
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  Speaker 1: She's been one of the vocal advocates of dumping net
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  Speaker 1: zero policy going into Wednesday's meeting, But the Climate two
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  Speaker 1: hundred backed Teal Independence have gone from strength to strength
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  Speaker 1: in that same time, so does what she is saying
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  Speaker 1: ring true. Are Australian voters genuinely going to accept a
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  Speaker 1: no net zero position from either party?
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's difficult to reconcile what people like Sarah Henderson
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  Speaker 4: and Andrew Hasty and Just Enterprise say based on the
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  Speaker 4: results from twenty twenty two, in twenty twenty five and
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  Speaker 4: the rise of the tials and all that. However, looking forward,
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  Speaker 4: there is globally a change in sentiment around this issue.
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  Speaker 4: The OECD put out a report just on Friday showing
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  Speaker 4: that there has been a slow down in global action
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  Speaker 4: on climate. We've seen Donald Trump pull out of Paris,
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  Speaker 4: We're seeing anti net zero parties doing very well in
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  Speaker 4: the polls. Nigel Fras is doing well in the polls
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  Speaker 4: in Britain, and the Conservative Party have dumped the commitment
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  Speaker 4: to net zero altogether. So I think moving forward there
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  Speaker 4: are plenty of political headaches potentially in dropping that zero,
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  Speaker 4: but closer to the next election twenty twenty eight, it
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  Speaker 4: will become increasingly clear. I think that Australia will not
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  Speaker 4: meet US twenty thirty target and the transition will continue
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  Speaker 4: to be messy. What that means for power prices, I
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  Speaker 4: think is they're probably going to keep going up as well,
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  Speaker 4: and that will leave I think the Coalition with a
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  Speaker 4: very clear argument that Labor's committed to net zero but
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  Speaker 4: it's not hitting any of its targets. All it means
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  Speaker 4: is a lot of expense for voters. We will do
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  Speaker 4: it another way. While there is risk politically in it,
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  Speaker 4: I can see a pathway to success, but I think
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  Speaker 4: it pretty much means it's very difficult to win back
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  Speaker 4: those old blue ribbon seats in Melbourne and Sydney.
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  Speaker 1: And after Wednesday, what then.
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  Speaker 4: I just think they need to get this resolve before Christmas.
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  Speaker 4: They can't see this blood letting go on into next
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  Speaker 4: year and they need to start putting the pressure back
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  Speaker 4: on the government and the government they're twenty thirty five
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  Speaker 4: target landed pretty well. Really, it's a big range, sixty
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  Speaker 4: two to seventy percent. But as I said, the difficulties
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  Speaker 4: for the government in this will actually be delivering on it,
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  Speaker 4: and that's where there will be pressure for Labor. So
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  Speaker 4: at the moment it looks like Labour's in a pretty
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  Speaker 4: unassailable position. But when you look at both this issue,
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  Speaker 4: the budget the economy, I think if the Libs can
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  Speaker 4: sort this out and then act with relative stability going
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  Speaker 4: on into next year, I think there are opportunities to
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  Speaker 4: land some blows on the government.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Brown is The Australian's chief political correspondent. You can
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  Speaker 1: check out his reporting and analysis right now at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au