Nationals leader says net zero ‘impossible’ as party moves towards ditching goal

The Nationals are awaiting a review from one of the party’s most pro-fossil fuel members before ditching a commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, as leader David Littleproud argued it is an impossible goal to achieve.

Littleproud’s internal rival, Barnaby Joyce, is trying to build support for a private member’s bill to get rid of it and another former Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, lent his support on Wednesday.

Barnaby Joyce and Nationals leader David Littleproud have a deep rivalry.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The bill does not have a chance of succeeding in parliament, but the decision by the two former leaders, who bitterly contested the party’s leadership for years, to join forces and support it poses a major headache for Littleproud.

Disputes over climate policy underpinned an unsuccessful challenge to Littleproud’s leadership after the May election, which prompted Littleproud to launch an internal review of the net zero policy led by pro-fossil fuel senator Matt Canavan.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Littleproud said achieving the 2050 goal was impossible and was “tearing apart” regional communities “for an ideology that is not going to sustain an energy grid”.

Asked if it was a foregone conclusion that the review would eventually lead to net zero being ditched as party policy, Littleproud said: “I want to be able to validate that with experts.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley at Parliament House on Tuesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Experts widely agree that the world needs to rapidly curb emissions to avert catastrophic effects of climate change, including temperature rises, more frequent natural disasters, and severe pressure on global food systems and environments.

The Canavan-led review will consult experts to measure the economic cost of phasing out fossil fuels and the potentially adverse effect on farming communities of building hectares of solar and wind farms.

“I think net zero, unfortunately, has become something about trying to achieve the impossible rather than actually doing what’s sensible, and we’re bearing the burden of that,” Littleproud said.

He ducked questions about how the Coalition would work if the Nationals dropped the greenhouse gas-reduction target and the Liberal Party retained it.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley held the line on her party’s climate stance and emphasised the Coalition’s review of all its policies – separate from the Nationals’ energy review – that will eventually lead to formal policy positions on energy.

“These three blokes are pretty good at speaking up for themselves, I’ve always found,” Ley said on Nine’s Today show.

Moderate Liberal senator Jane Hume launched a passionate defence of net zero on Wednesday.

“Over and over, the electorate has told us that they want to see a net zero energy future. They want to see emissions come down,” she said on Sky News.

Credit: Matt Golding

“We need to be able to take the politics out of this issue, and say, how do we get to a net zero energy future and reduce emissions, but at the same time maintain our prosperity.”

Coalition energy spokesman Dan Tehan dismissed Joyce and McCormack’s push, saying on Sky they were “two steers in the paddock doing what they’re doing”.

“As a member of the Coalition, [Joyce] is entitled to bring forward a private member’s bill … [the Coalition] have a process we’ve set up to work through our approach. That is the approach we’ll take to the Australian people,” Tehan said.

Joyce and McCormack united behind the private member’s bill in a report in The Australian on Wednesday and criticised Littleproud for his handling of the Coalition split in May.

McCormack said on Wednesday he was not undermining Littleproud’s leadership.

“I didn’t erode David Littleproud’s credibility,” he said, before again criticising the Nationals leader’s handling of the temporary split with the Liberals while Ley’s mother was in palliative care.

“I thought that [it] was very unfortunate we couldn’t wait until the next week,” McCormack added.

Joyce also attacked former Liberal leader Peter Dutton for imposing overly tight discipline during the last term of parliament.

He said Dutton had called him and told him to leave politics after he had given an interview to the ABC where he said nuclear power would not bring down the price of energy.

“He was saying f--- you and f--- this,” Joyce told The Australian. “And it was because I did an interview with [ABC presenter] Patricia Karvelas and I hadn’t said nuclear would bring down the price of power. Because it won’t; it just won’t go up as much.”

Littleproud said he was relaxed about his hold on the leadership.

“I’m not going to lose any sleep over [the prospect of a challenge],” Littleproud said.

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