Net-zero naysayers want Barnaby back in Nationals tent
Renegade Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce is being urged to return to the party fold as ongoing threats to abandon ship overshadow coalition restructuring.
While Mr Joyce has so far retained his membership due to his tough stance on climate policy, the former party leader did not attend the National party chamber meeting on Monday.
Mr Joyce also cited his destructive relationship with Nationals leader David Littleproud as a reason for his departure.
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan said he hoped Mr Joyce and Mr Littleproud could quickly reconcile their differences after the pair had a brief meeting on Monday.
“I think it’s a good thing David has reached out to him and I hope they can fix this,” he told AAP.
“Like I said, a family is much stronger when it stays together and hopefully we can achieve that.”
The party’s split has further reduced the chances of the coalition losing Labor’s commanding parliamentary majority at a time when the National Party is seeking government scrutiny over high energy costs.
Senator Canavan is leading a review of the Nationals’ net zero position with his senate colleague Ross Cadell and presented details of the report at Monday’s party room meeting, which Mr Joyce did not attend.
“I would have loved to have Barnaby in our chamber today. It is disappointing that he is not attending the meetings,” Senator Canavan said.
“I’d love to see him back soon.”
The coalition has yet to commit to supporting net zero by 2050, despite Mr Joyce’s objections to the target.
While Senator Canavan is dead on net zero, Dan Tehan, who leads the Liberal energy review, said lowering energy prices in the short term was more important than reducing emissions in the long term.
Mr Tehan told Sky News: “What we need to focus on… is what’s going to happen in the next five years, what’s going to happen with electricity prices, what’s going to happen with Labor’s reckless introduction of renewable energy generation and how we can fix that.”
He backed nuclear power and speeding up approvals for gas exploration to help reduce electricity bills, ahead of a full support meeting on Friday to discuss the policy review in more detail.
