Scott Morrison: Labor won’t save your jobs

Scott Morrison has declared his emissions target of net zero by 2050 will deliver a ‘positive benefit’ to jobs and regions.

Scott Morrison says he will be ‘very clear and transparent’ about costings and commitments to achieve carbon neutrality. Picture: Gary Ramage

Scott Morrison has declared his emissions target of net zero by 2050 will deliver a “positive ­benefit” to Australian jobs and ­regions, warning voters cannot trust Labor to shield miners and farmers from economic shocks sparked by the global clean-­energy transition.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday ramped up his assault on ­Anthony Albanese months out from the election, promised the government’s carbon neutrality plan would protect regional Australians and challenged Labor over its delay in spelling out its own 2030 emissions-reduction target.

Labor has not identified a 2030 target since ditching Bill Shorten’s policy to reduce emissions by 45 per cent following the 2019 election defeat, but Mr Albanese has said it will be more ambitious than the Coalition’s reduction of 26-28 per cent.

Negotiations between Mr Morrison and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce over the Glasgow climate change package were understood to be positive, with senior Coalition figures on Tuesday predicting a final position by the end of the week.

The ongoing discussions will not prevent Mr Morrison from ­attending the Glasgow climate summit, with Mr Joyce conceding the Prime Minister had his own mandate to attend with a 2050 net-zero target.

“That’s the prerogative of the Prime Minister,” Mr Joyce said. “He has his own mandate and he has his own capacity and that is absolutely and utterly his own right. We have a Coalition and it is the best thing for our nation. But it is not chained with a padlock. It is the agreed position of views.”

Barnaby Joyce says modelling ‘shows a downturn in coal price, coal commodities over time’. Picture: Gary Ramage

Mr Morrison said he would be “very clear and transparent” about costings and commitments to achieve carbon neutrality following demands he release the economic modelling supporting the government’s long-term emissions-reduction strategy.

In a pitch to Nationals and conservative Liberal MPs concerned about the Coalition’s ­climate-change shift, Mr Morrison said the election fight would focus on which party Australians trusted to deliver the best economic plan for regional communities. “They know they can’t trust the Labor Party on these issues,” he said. “With the right plan it’s a positive benefit. What we do know is this … the global economy is changing as the world responds to climate change.

“Those changes will have an impact on the Australian economy. They do present risks and threats to rural and regional areas and only the Coalition can be trusted to ensure that we can deal with those threats.”

Mr Albanese said Mr Morrison could not be trusted to take action on climate change, labelling him the “Prime Minister who has ridiculed new technology”.

The Opposition Leader said Mr Morrison had a long history of opposing meaningful action on climate change.

“It’s the Prime Minister who said new technology in the form of electric vehicles would end the weekend,” Mr Albanese said.

“This is the Prime Minister who has disparaged action … he’s become a caricature of himself, having spent years ridiculing action on climate change.”

Nationals senator Matt Canavan says adopting a target of net zero by 2050 would be a ‘betrayal’ of Coalition supporters and have ‘real implications’ at the next election.. Picture: Gary Ramage

Flagging an election scare campaign, Mr Morrison accused Labor of secretly planning a “carbon tax” despite Mr Albanese saying Labor ruled out any price on carbon “a long time ago”.

“I can’t be clearer than no,” he said. “The reason why you needed a price on carbon … when we were considering it in government more than a decade ago, is that you needed to change the price of the market. The market is now speaking, renewables are the cheapest form of new energy.”

The Labor leader on Tuesday told his party room to be ready for a snap December election. He told colleagues that “Labor is always there years before the Coalition” on climate change and that other countries now had a “first mover” advantage.

Mr Albanese, who will be ­represented in Glasgow by opposition assistant climate change spokesman Pat Conroy and legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus, said he agreed with Mr Morrison that the pathway to net zero by 2050 would not have to be ­“linear”. With the government trying to wedge Labor on 2030 targets, Mr Albanese has left the door open for the ALP to adopt a 2030 target under 40 per cent.

The 45 per cent emissions reduction target Mr Shorten took to the 2019 election was based on a linear approach to reaching carbon neutrality by mid-century. Mr Albanese said Labor would not reveal its hand on a 2030 target until after the COP26 summit.

Some Labor MPs told The Australian they hoped Mr Albanese’s target was not higher than the government’s projections, to be revealed in coming days and expected to show the nation will reach 35 per cent.

Mr Joyce said net zero modelling provided to the Nationals showed that if “the world is going where it is going” that commodity prices for exports including coal would take a hit in coming decades. “That estimation would naturally point to a change in demand which will reflect a change in price,” the Nationals leader said. “In the results of the modelling, which we have seen, it shows a downturn in coal price, coal commodities over time.”

He said he was sceptical of modelling showing coal was likely to diminish over the coming decades, citing the British energy crisis as an example where climate forecasting had failed.

With Mr Morrison talking up the future of coal exports under a net-zero plan, Mr Joyce went further to say he remained supportive of new coal-fired power stations and would be “happy” for the proposed Collinsville coal-fired power station in central Queensland to proceed. He said Australia should focus on developing low-emissions technologies that would allow coal-fired power stations to remain in the system.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan said adopting a target of net zero by 2050 would be a “betrayal” of Coalition supporters and have “real implications” at the next election.