Greens face backlash over climate threats Greens feel heat in threat backlash

Tanya Plibersek says Greens voters would be ‘appalled’ to see the party vote with Peter Dutton and Barnaby Joyce against the Safeguard Mechanism bill.

Adam Bandt and the Greens are under immense pressure from key political and business leaders after threatening to kill Labor’s signature climate policy.

The Greens are facing a backlash from big business, industry, unions and Labor frontbenchers amid warnings their threats to kill Anthony Albanese’s signature climate policy will destroy the economy and ruin the environment for generations.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt doubled down on claims that the government’s emissions reductions scheme would “make the climate crisis worse” despite the staunch retaliation over the party’s threats to blow up Labor’s safeguard mechanism.

The pushback from the Greens comes as Labor races to win support for the safeguard mechanism, the $15bn National Reconstruction Fund and the $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund before the May budget.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said Greens voters “would be shocked” to see the party line up to vote with Peter Dutton and Barnaby Joyce against the Safeguard Mechanism bill.

“It might not be everything the Greens want, but the idea that they would vote against it and block action on climate change I think would appall their supporters,” Ms Plibersek said on Sky News on Thursday morning.

Ms Plibersek said her recent refusal of Clive Palmer’s Central Queensland coal mine shows she will consider fossil fuel projects “on a case by case basis”.

“I’m prepared to say no to projects that are environmentally damaging,” she said.

Unions on Wednesday accused the Greens of doing more to worsen climate change “than any other entity in the country”, while Labor frontbenchers accused the minor party of “reigniting the climate wars”.

Senior government and industry figures feared Mr Bandt was preparing to repeat former Greens leader Bob Brown’s rejection of Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme in 2009 which resulted in failed attempts at climate policy reform across successive governments.

Australian Workers Union national secretary Daniel Walton said the Greens were not interested in climate action but rather “grandstanding to their out of touch followers”, labelling their threats as “vacuous moral purity”.

“Whenever the Greens have a choice between achieving a real, practical advance on climate change or destructive moralising you can always bet on the path they’ll choose,” he said.

Australian Chamber of Commerce chief executive Andrew McKellar said Labor must “categorically reject” the Greens proposal to block new coal and gas projects, warning it would choke off energy supply, drive up electricity prices and cause blackouts.

“This is not the time for another climate war. Business urges the government to hold firm and reject this ideological wrecking ball,” he said. “Extremists won’t be satisfied until the lights go out for good. The government must stay the course and deliver the best possible outcome for Australia’s future.”

The Greens are under fire from Labor frontbenchers after threats to kill the party’s emissions reductions scheme.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said industry was watching “history repeat” with the Coalition and Greens potentially scuttling Labor’s safeguard mechanism, and warned Australia was at risk of losing economic opportunity to international competitors. The Coalition has rejected Labor’s climate, manufacturing and housing legislative agenda, with Labor’s $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund passing the lower house on Wednesday night.

Mr Willox, who represents thousands of businesses, said a total ban on new coal and gas developments would not be sensible and that gas companies were already working to lift efficiency, electrify or adopt clean hydrogen.

“A form of political extremism is at play here. It has cost us before and it could cost us again,” he said.

The Prime Minister said Labor’s climate policy was endorsed by industry, big business, farmers and unions as he attacked the Coalition after it rejected the government’s climate, housing and manufacturing policies.

“In every issue, whether it‘s manufacturing, whether it’s housing, whether it be dealing with the challenge of climate change, those opposite have just one answer – the Coalition have begun to be the ’No-alition” once again saying no with no improvements,” he said.

Unions on Wednesday accused the Greens of doing more to worsen climate change “than any other entity in the country”.

Labor’s safeguard mechanism – in which Australia’s 215 biggest-polluting facilities would slash emissions by almost 5 per cent each year out to 2030 – is essential to the government’s target to cut emissions by 43 per cent by the end of the decade.

Mr Bandt said the Greens would support the mechanism if the government “stops opening new coal and gas mines”. He said the government would need to work with the Greens if it wanted to pass legislation through the Senate, and that voters had given the party an election mandate to halt new coal and gas projects.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Mr Bandt would have to decide whether he was “for or against 200 million tonnes of emissions reduction”.