Can Ted O’Brien unite the Coalition on climate?

After a bruising election where emissions reduction was at the forefront, new Liberal energy spokesman Ted O’Brien says policies will be reset – after a listening tour.

Ted O'Brien in Brisbane at the weekend. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The Coalition will seek to re-set its energy and climate policies after a “listening tour” of industry and big business under new climate change and energy spokesman Ted O’Brien, a former backbencher who criticised Labor’s failure to leverage the LNG export trigger to ease a national gas crisis.

The Liberal MP has been handed the task of uniting the party on emissions reduction after a bruising election where the Coalition was taken to task for its lack of action on climate.

The temporary collapse of the national electricity market just weeks after Labor won power has also sharpened criticism of Coalition policies amid a “perfect storm” of market pressures.

Mr O’Brien, a Sunshine Coast MP tapped by Liberal leader Peter Dutton for the role in June, said he was under no illusions over the wide variety of views on climate.

“The fact we have different views within the Coalition is a strength, not a weakness,” he told The Australian. “What unites us is a common set of values.”

Some of the big emitters who face a tougher crackdown under Labor’s beefed up safeguard mechanism will be among the companies who Mr O’Brien will hold talks with in August to better understand the concerns of industry and big energy players.

“We’re in opposition now. And so I’m looking forward to receiving direct feedback and hearing the views and ideas of people and making really good use of the opportunity we have to formulate a fresh suite of policies for the next election,” Mr O’Brien said.

That starts with getting up and on the ground and listening. It will be individuals at the grassroots together with small and family businesses and industry. We have got to get our policies right and that’s what I’m determined to do and that starts with listening.”

Mr O’Brien, a Mandarin-speaking China expert and former Accenture executive, may be treading a cautious path on climate but said Labor had already misstepped with its handling of a national energy crisis.

Resources Minister Madeleine King said in June that the government would urgently review the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, a trigger allowing it to force LNG exporters to put more gas into domestic reserves.

However, Mr O’Brien said taking action by threatening to trigger the gas mechanism would have been the correct course of action.

“The gas trigger should have been leveraged as a tool to put pressure on the gas providers to boost supply immediately. Let’s be practical, we have this tool and the value of that tool is as much in the threat of its use. Labor, however, immediately played politics. Because that gas trigger was a creature of the former Coalition government, they publicly criticised it and therefore threw it out of their toolkit.”

Better engagement with industry could have gone further to ease the strains of high prices and tight supplies, he added.

The Coalition’s heavy-handed approach to the energy industry with measures – including a threat of forcible divestment – were poorly received by many companies. But Mr O’Brien said he believed the sector could be playing a bigger role in the current energy crunch.

“The Coalition’s approach to energy crises was always a practical one. In the months leading up to the election, we prioritised engagement, and sometimes pressure, on energy and gas businesses to keep up supply,” Mr O’Brien separately writes in The Australian on Tuesday.

“The Albanese government is different. Instead of calling a crisis meeting with industry CEOs to find a solution when prices began to skyrocket (hint: more supply), its new energy minister called a meeting with state and territory governments. Unsurprisingly, no solutions emerged.”

Labor’s climate change bill, to be presented to parliament in the next sitting fortnight, would legislate a “floor” of lowering carbon emissions by 43 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.

While the package will be blocked in the Senate if the Greens team with the Coalition to vote against it, some moderate Liberal MPs are reluctant to oppose the legislation given the focus on climate at the election.

The Queensland MP – who described himself as a pragmatist and problem solver – said the case for action on climate change was now supported by a majority of Australians, while warning the path for both 2030 targets and net zero goals by mid-century remained the next contest.

“There are many paths to net zero and if we take the wrong one, the consequences will be dire,” he said. “Failing to get the ‘how’ right risks everything from energy security to national security and food security, along with our national prosperity. The wealth, health and wellbeing of everyday Australians is … at stake.”