Scott Morrison pulls up Barnaby Joyce on climate claims

Scott Morrison has contradicted Barnaby Joyce’s claim it is not the role of government to formulate a plan for Australia to reach net-zero emissions.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. Picture: Glenn Hunt

Scott Morrison has contradicted Barnaby Joyce’s claim it is not the role of government to formulate a plan for Australia to reach net-zero emissions, highlighting a split in the Coalition over whose job it is to design climate change policy.

The Deputy Prime Minister said it was not the responsibility of government to outline modelling to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, after declaring he would not agree to the target until he was given details on the costs to reach that goal.

“We don’t actually come up with a plan, the CSIRO and other competent people come up with a plan,” the Nationals leader told the ABC.

But the Prime Minister said formulating plans for new climate commitments would be done through cabinet, of which Mr Joyce is a senior member.

“Our plan for achieving our ­climate commitments and our goals have been worked through by the cabinet and the processes of the cabinet and we have completed those,” Mr Morrison told parliament.

“We will do exactly as we did before the last election. We set out our commitments to 2030 and how we would get there and we did that by all sectors and the ­initiatives that were put in place to ensure that we could reach that.

“And we are engaged in exactly the same considered and detailed process to ensure that when we make a commitment, we can tell people in regional Australia – we can tell them up in Newcastle and the Hunter, we can tell them over in Whyalla and we can tell them anywhere in this country – what it will mean for them, what the costs will be, and how this will impact on their livelihoods and on their ­regions.”

Liberal National MP Julian Simmonds became the latest government MP backing a target of net-zero emissions by 2050. The Queensland MP said he hoped the government would take a detailed plan of how Australia could reach the target to the next election.

“I would look forward to take a costed and achievable plan to the next election to show people how we will achieve net-zero by 2050,” he said.

With fellow Queensland MPs Matt Canavan and Gerard ­Rennick outright rejecting the target, Mr Simmons said people in the state were concerned about taking action on climate change. “Queenslanders have the same desire to leave our environment better than we came,” he said. “Queenslanders are smart voters. They will want to be able to ­scrutinise the detail and we have to be able to show that to them.”

Nationals cabinet ministers Bridget McKenzie and David Littleproud echoed Mr Joyce in declaring they wanted to be shown details on a 2050 target, despite being part of the executive government that Mr Morrison says will formulate the plan.

“The modelling I’ve seen of … a net-zero by 2050 target, the ­impacts on the agriculture, manufacturing and mining industry, would see a loss of over 650,000 jobs,” Senator McKenzie told Sky News.

“They are jobs in rural and ­regional Australia, and every single National Party MP and senator has been sent to Canberra to make sure that policies don’t negatively impact disproportionately on our people.

“And that is all we are asking, is to show us the detail, so that we can be convinced and encouraged that it won’t be our people and our large industries that will be paying the price of a net-zero by 2050 target.”