Zali Steggall accuses Tony Abbott of ‘lying’ during fiery Warringah debate
Tony Abbott and his independent rival for the seat of Warringah Zali Steggall have faced off for the first time in a tense election debate in which the former Prime Minister flipped his position on Australia exiting the Paris climate agreement.
Tony Abbott and his independent rival Zali Steggall have faced off for the first time in a fiery Warringah debate.
Seated next to each other, the pair briefly shook hands before they started trading blows on transport and climate issues.
The former prime minister said transport was the “priority” for voters in Warringah, with projects such as the proposed Northern Beaches tunnel a must to alleviate traffic congestion.
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But barrister and former Olympian Ms Steggall could barely hide her disdain as she pointed out Mr Abbott already had 26 years in office to try and fix the problem, declaring the main issue in Warringah was “proper representation in parliament”.
“If you haven’t fixed (transport) by now, why should anyone believe that you’re going to fix it now,” she said.
She accused Mr Abbott of “lying” in advertising that suggested she didn’t back the tunnel, but confirmed she did want to see a business case for the project.
Mr Abbott hit back saying, “we just have to do it”.
As the debate shifted to the environment Mr Abbott revealed he had flipped his position on Australia staying in the Paris international climate agreement.
Mr Abbott previously lobbied for Australia to exit the deal, which included an emissions reduction target of 26-28 per cent by 2030, but said circumstances had “changed”.
“I certainly thought that the only way to break the emissions obsession was to pull out of Paris,” he said.
“I think that the government has lost its emissions obsession. We have a new prime minister and a new energy minister.”
Ms Steggall, who is one of several Warringah candidates pushing for increased climate action, said Mr Abbott was just “hedging his bets” by back tracking on Paris.
Mr Abbott said Australia no longer needed to leave the agreement he signed because Prime Minister Scott Morrison did not have an “emissions obsession”.
“I certainly don’t think we should meeting emissions targets ahead of the economy,” Mr Abbott said during a Warringah candidates debate.
“I am confident based on the government are getting that we can meet our Paris targets without substantially damaging our economy.”
Despite the change in position Mr Abbott said he still believed coal was the cheapest source of base load power.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull hit back at Mr Abbott on Twitter accusing him of using “ideology and innumerate idiocy” to determine an emissions trading target.
“Today the cheapest form of new dispatchable or base load energy is renewables plus storage,” he said.
“We are now able to have lower emissions and lower prices but we need to plan it using engineering and economics rather than ideology and innumerate idiocy.
Throughout the debate Mr Abbott offered suggestions or posed questions to Ms Steggall, prompting the host, Sky News presenter David Speers, to remind the former prime minister he was not the one running the debate.
Speaking after the debate Ms Steggall said she found Mr Abbott his “usual rude, aggressive self”.
“I think he learn the error of his ways and learn some manners,” she said.
“People have had enough of that style of politics, they do not want that kind of aggressive talking over, they don’t want that kind of belittling debate, they actually want sensible discussion on the issues.”
Ms Steggall said she did not believe action on climate change was a “left issue”.
“I’m a moderate, I’m in the middle, I represent a lot of people in the electorate who want to see (climate) action,” she said
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