Tail wags the dog as Nats rule on climate

Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce in Canberra on Monday. Picture: Gary Ramage

It is utterly farcical that Australia’s climate change policy – which affects our future economy and jobs, living standards, natural environment, biosecurity and health – is being held to ransom by 21 members and senators in the Nation­als.

The Liberal Party has out­sourced policymaking to its junior, out-of-touch, rump partner.

The nation is holding its collective breath in anticipation of this minor party effectively deciding the policies, programs and targets that Scott Morrison will take to the UN Climate Change Conference. Who do they think they are? The College of Cardinals deliberating in secret before issuing a sacred declaration?

This is a perversion of how the Coalition is meant to work and, more important, a debasement of the principles of Westminster government, where the cabinet deliberates and decides policy.

Instead, the Morrison government has allowed the junior governing party to exercise a veto over policy. Barnaby Joyce is riding roughshod over the Prime Minister. The nation is looking on aghast at the tail wagging the dog.

Joyce says he will not hasten deliberations in the Nationals’ party room. “This is not something we can allow to happen in a great rush,” he said. After all, governments have been considering climate change for only 30 years.

The core tenets of an effective Liberal Party and Nationals relationship was established by Robert Menzies and John McEwen in the 1950s. They understood a co-operative relationship was essential to good government, stability and electoral success. They had mutual respect and trusted one another. Critically, they were able to negotiate with each other.

Menzies did not cool his heels while the Country Party, as it was then called, decided the policies of his government. McEwen did not leave it to the party room to decide, as if he were just one voice. He was the leader – he led. McEwen also understood that Menzies, as prime minister, would have the final say.

The great Nationals leaders of the past often identified the national interest rather than allowed themselves to be captive to minority sectional interests. These leaders, as deputy prime minister, recognised they were part of a government, not simply the leader of a minor party that could hold the Liberal Party hostage.

McEwen identified the benefits of trade with Japan in the ’50s, Doug Anthony recognised the importance of the Australia-China relationship in the ’70s, and Tim Fischer and John Anderson put the national interest first when they took on their constituency and supported new national gun laws in the ’90s.

The cabinet has considered its climate change policy but has reserved making a final decision until the Nationals have their say.

This policymaking process is ridiculous. The Coalition agreement stipulates that the Nationals have ministers commensurate with the number of their MPs in parliament. This means the junior party is represented in the cabinet in accordance with its electoral support.

It is understandable that Morrison does not want to lose his leadership over climate change, like several of his predecessors. He has a tightrope to walk. He wants to keep the Liberals and Nationals united. But he also must show leadership. This requires leading, not following. He has prime ministerial authority and he should exercise it.

Where are the so-called modern Liberals who represent more progressive constituencies in the cities and suburbs who accept the science that shows the planet is warming and we need to take action to address it or our economy, environment and health will suffer? They are seemingly happy for the Nationals to determine Liberal policy. They risk paying a price at the ballot box for their acquiescence.

Morrison was always going to commit formally to the target of net-zero emissions by 2050 – it would be untenable for him not to. He also was likely to go to Glasgow for COP26. Australia’s alliance partners expect no less. At the Quad Leaders Summit last month, Morrison signed up to the communique that said the “climate crisis” was accelerating.

Conservative governments around the world, including in Britain, are taking decisive action to decarbonise their economies. Even the Queen and her heir, Prince Charles, think it is absurd that leaders would not attend COP26.

There is no party more royalist than the Nationals. They are clearly out of step with the thinking in Buckingham Palace.

Yet Resources Minister Keith Pitt insists his party is standing up for rural and regional Australia. But are they? The truth is that the Nationals are out of step with rural and regional Australia.

The National Farmers Federation, Meat & Livestock Australia, the Cattle Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group and the Business Council of Australia accept the reality of climate change, have adopted clear 2030 and/or 2050 emissions reduction targets and outlined policies to achieve this. Australia’s big energy companies are abandoning coal and reducing their emissions.

Morrison is likely to win support for the target of net-zero emissions by 2050 from the Nationals, but at what cost? The Nationals fail to see the cost of not acting – which includes higher capital costs and tariffs imposed on our exports – and the benefits of acting such as the development of new industries and jobs.

Instead, the Nationals are rent seeking, asking the government to underwrite a $250bn loan, and invest billions of dollars in new infrastructure, for the mining sector.

There is a role for government to help the transition to cleaner, greener, low-emissions energy. But not using taxpayer funds or borrowing to prop-up unsustainable, uncompetitive and unprofitable fossil fuel production.

German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck reportedly quipped that laws are like sausages and it is better not to see how either of them are made. He could have been talking about policymaking in the Morrison-Joyce government.

Morrison has an opportunity to forge a new climate policy with industry, cross-party and voter support. Only the Nationals stand in his way.