Pauline Hanson calls on Coalition to back urgency motion on net zero

Pauline Hanson is seizing on chaos in the Coalition to push an urgency motion on net zero through the Senate.

One Nation senator Pauline Hanson is seizing on division in the Coalition to push through an urgency motion calling for Australia to abandon its net zero target.

Senator Hanson, a long-time climate change denier, will introduce the motion on Monday following Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce’s private members bill calling for the same thing.

Aware of the divide in the Coalition, Senator Hanson said her motion would out opposition “cowards”.

“They’re gutless, you know, they’re cowards,” she told Sky News when asked about the prospect of Coalition senators not backing her motion.

“Because a lot of these people on the floor of parliament have no understanding, cannot debate you about climate change.

“They don’t even know anything about it.

“They’re making decisions and voting on it.”

One Nation senator Pauline Hanson says her net zero urgency motion will expose ‘cowards’ in the Coalition. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

‘Scam’

She went on to say Australians have “been hoodwinked”.

“It’s a scam going on and if we head down this path, what will happen to Australians?” Senator Hanson said.

“You will be restricted where you travel, where you go, what you eat, and it will be based on your carbon emissions.”

Australia’s renewables targets do not impose restrictions on freedom of movement or diets.

Earlier, Mr Joyce asked Australia’s big-city residents if they are “prepared to hurt the poor” by pursuing a carbon neutral future.

Mr Joyce, who was banished to the backbench after the Coalition’s brief post-election break-up, kicked off the second sitting week of the new parliament by introducing his Repeal Net Zero Bill.

Unless Sussan Ley drastically changes course in rebuilding the Coalition as a moderate opposition, the private member’s bill will not get far.

But as a former Nationals leader, Mr Joyce holds clout within the party and his split from more green-minded Liberal Party colleagues has grown into somewhat of a backbench rebellion.

Nationals heavyweight Barnaby Joyce has asked Australia’s big-city residents if they are ‘prepared to hurt the poor’. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

Mr Joyce said on Monday there needed to be more give and take between city-living Australians and their rural and regional counterparts, saying there “are certain things” the regions could do but do not “because we’re trying to be reasonable”.

“There’s absolutely no reason that Mascot Airport can’t work 24/7,” he told reporters, flanked by fellow Coalition rebels and disgruntled community members.

“But we understand that people don’t want planes flying over themselves in the middle of the night … but we don’t want transmission lines over our head either.

“We don’t want wind towers either, so there’s got to be a form of good pro quo.”

Mr Joyce said the question “affluent suburbs” needed to be asked was: “Are you prepared to hurt the poor?”

“Are you prepared to hurt them and I don’t think if you really explain the issue that people do want to hurt them,” he said.

“You don’t feel virtuous if you’re hurting people.”

Former Nationals leaders Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack are calling for Australia’s net-zero target to be abandoned. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

Mr Joyce’s Bill proposes to abandon Australia’s carbon-neutral target by 2050.

The target is in line with goals set by other developed economies, but the task has been complicated by rapid energy demands from emerging economies and global disruptions driven by increased conflicts, such as Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Among Mr Joyce’s supporters gathered outside Parliament House was fellow former Nationals leader Michael McCormack, another hefty voice in the party.

Liberal MP Garth Hamilton also joined him, making him the only member of the senior Coalition partner to do so.

Originally published as Pauline Hanson calls on Coalition to back urgency motion on net zero