Election 2022: Matt Canavan stands by net zero ‘dead’ comments

Barnaby Joyce has been asked a question about a controversial comment his colleague made – while he was standing right next to him.

Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan has doubled down on his view that net zero is “dead”, insisting he’s not fussed that his comments might cost Liberal colleagues their seats in Melbourne and Sydney.

Senator Canavan stood beside Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce in Bowen, Queensland, to talk up $80m for a 100km underground pipeline from the Burdekin River that was part of this year’s budget.

The $5m business case for this project has not yet come back, but Mr Joyce said he wasn’t about waiting for things like that.

There was soon an awkward question as Mr Joyce was asked about Senator Canavan’s defiance of the deal struck between the Nationals and Liberals to adopt the net zero emissions target by 2050.

“Are you conscious that comments like that affect inner-city Liberal seats when they’re competing against strong independents who are running on a climate platform?” Mr Joyce was asked.

Senator Matt Canavan would not back down from his net zero ‘dead’ comment. Picture: Brad Hunter, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

“The thing about it is we honour our agreements,” Mr Joyce said.

“Every agreement we’ve made, every target we’ve set, we’ve met.

“Other countries, they go in, they turn up in their jets with their fists pumping, and then they grab the agreement, walk out the door, screw it up and throw it in the bin.

“Australia doesn’t. We’re an honourable country.”

Senator Canavan was then asked if he would do the “honourable thing as Barnaby says” and back what his party had actually committed to.

“Everybody knows that I stand for, what I believe in and my views have been well known,” he said, doubling down on the net zero is dead remark.

Barnaby Joyce said Australia was an ‘honourable’ country. Picture: Brad Hunter, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

“I said that to the party room last year and to everybody else.

“And what I said last week is no different to what I’ve been saying for months.

“Barnaby’s right that Australia does meet its commitments, the rest of the world less so.”

Senator Canavan said he was entitled to air his views on net zero, even if it cost the Liberal Party seats in inner-city Melbourne and Sydney, where climate change is a major concern for voters.

“I’m just really uninterested in this sort of juvenile political commentary that constantly minimises serious debates in this country, down to a political horse race,” he said.

“I’m happy to respect other people with different opinions. It’s just a bit of a shame, in my view that apparently the most dangerous thing in Canberra is a debate.”

Senator Canavan first made the controversial comments to the ABC last week.

“The other thing to say is the net zero thing is all sort of dead anyway,” he said.

“Boris Johnson said he is pausing the net zero commitment, Germany is building coal and gas infrastructure, Italy’s reopening coal-fired power plants. It’s all over. It’s all over bar the shouting here.

“We’re talking about something that is 28 years away.

“What will happen in 28 years time, or the policies that will happen in ten or 20 years, I think, should be up to the Australian people in 10 or 20 years, some of who might not even be voting (now).”

Originally published as Election 2022: Matt Canavan stands by net zero ‘dead’ comments