Liberals ‘optimistic’ after net zero showdown, Melissa McIntosh says
A Liberal backbencher has revealed details of a highly secretive, marathon meeting in Parliament House following reports that a majority of the party room was in favor of net zero falling.
On Wednesday, Liberal MPs and senators attended a mammoth meeting in the party hall to express their views on the emissions target agreed by the Scott Morrison-led Coalition six years ago.
This policy was reviewed by Ms Ley following the opposition’s historic defeat at the polls in May and has since fractured the Coalition across party lines.
Melissa McIntosh, who has publicly advocated for the party to abandon its emissions target, said on Thursday that the meeting had left MPs and senators feeling “optimistic”, adding that she was “taking action”.
“It was really civilized and people had their say, it lasted five hours,” he told Sky News.
“We all had about five minutes to express our opinions.
‘So it’s been a productive day and we have another meeting with the shadow ministry today.’
Asked if the party had officially given up on net zero, Ms McIntosh said she felt “pretty optimistic” and hoped final policy would take that position as well.
“I can’t say officially yet because we have to go to the shadow ministerial meeting and in that meeting there are probably people who support net zero for a variety of reasons and it’s up to Dan (Tehan) and Sussan (Ley) to negotiate on that.
“But the point of yesterday was for everyone to express their views, their opinions on this, and some people, like me, took a strong stance on the basis that this is what their community wants.”
He said the Paris Agreement was also raised at the party room meeting and the commitment to remain in the international climate agreement “at the general level” was presented with “strong support”.
“There were no opposition problems in Paris.
“I think it is important for us to continue to meet our international obligations when it comes to climate and emissions reduction.
“Everyone who opposes net zero still stood up and said we have a role to play in reducing emissions, but not at the harder, faster, deeper pace that the Albanian Labor Government has set for us.”
Asked how the party will argue that cutting net zero emissions is not synonymous with climate denialism, Ms McIntosh said: “It will be up to us as a party to forcefully articulate the reasons why we are making these decisions.
“We need to bury our heads in the sand to think that we will not be attacked from all angles on this issue.
“But the intent is strong. We care about the environment, we care about climate policy and we care about Australians, but when people are suffering so badly right now… we can’t expect things to change if we don’t change direction.”
Many Liberals, including opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan, who drafted the party’s official position, have hinted that coal and gas will play a role in the new policy platform.
But Ms McIntosh said it would be up to Mr Tehan and Ms Ley to “outline” the Liberal Party’s final policy platform, which will be unveiled on Thursday afternoon.
