Joel Fitzgibbon fuels ALP carbon fire

Joel Fitzgibbon will lash out at opposition energy spokesman Mark Butler for claiming it will take Australia 146 years to reach carbon neutrality under the Morrison government’s policies.

Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon. Picture: Gary Ramage

Joel Fitzgibbon will lash out at opposition energy spokesman Mark Butler for claiming it will take Australia 146 years to reach carbon neutrality under the Morrison government’s policies, as the Hunter MP escalates his campaign for Labor to avoid setting medium-term emissions targets while in opposition.

Mr Fitzgibbon will use a speech to the Sydney Institute on Wednesday night to repudiate Mr Butler’s successful push to reinsert a medium-term emissions target into Labor’s draft policy platform.

He will instead urge Labor to “commit to whatever medium-term targets Scott Morrison commits the Australian people to”, declaring short-term goals should be set only by a sitting government when an update is required under the Paris Agreement, which would typically be every five years.

Australia will need to commit to a 2035 target by the end of next year, potentially just months before an election. “Providing continuity would take the political heat out of target-setting and provide investors with the certainty they need to create jobs,” Mr Fitzgibbon will say.

Calling medium-term targets of “limited utility”, Mr Fitzgibbon will say any medium-term target a Coalition government sets could act as a floor on which a future Labor government would be able to overachieve through bigger investments in technology.

“Scott Morrison certainly doesn’t want an end to the climate wars. They’ve helped the Coalition win the last three elections,” Mr Fitzgibbon will say.

“For that reason alone, Labor should commit to whatever medium-term targets Scott Morrison commits the Australian people to. We should also recommit to net-zero emissions by 2050 and commit a Labor government to accelerating the pace of the innovation needed to achieve the mid-century goal.

“Certainly, medium-term targets should not be set by opposition parties. From the opposition benches, politicians have no capacity to determine what rate of achievement is possible, without doing harm to our economy and local jobs.”

The draft platform’s requirement for Labor to set a medium-term target was a win for the Labor Environment Action Network, which will now push for Anthony Albanese to announce a 2035 target before the election.

The draft platform, finalised with amendments on Tuesday, does not reference Labor’s support for the coal industry but backs gas as a transitional fuel. It also was amended with a commitment to stronger environmental laws pushed by LEAN, including creation of an independent Environment Protection Authority.

In his speech on Wednesday night, Mr Fitzgibbon will label Mr Butler’s claim Australia was on a trajectory to achieve zero-net emissions in 146 years as “no more believable than Scott Morrison’s claim he is on track to meet his current medium-term target”.

“Not 140 years, not 145 years, but exactly 146 years,” Mr Fitzgibbon will say. “And it’s no more believable than anything the Greens have to say on the issue, or National Party MPs for that matter. This is the problem with the climate change debate; no one is being honest with the Australian people. That’s because honesty would come at the cost of perceived political advantage. I use the word ‘perceived’ advisedly, but ‘delusional’ may be more accurate.”

Mr Butler has based the projection on expectations emissions will drop by 7 per cent this decade.

Mr Fitzgibbon, who stepped down from shadow cabinet last month, will say a medium-term target should be set “on behalf of the Australian government and the Australian people, not one made on behalf of any one political party”.