South Australia Liberals in chaos as party dumps net zero

The climate wars have exploded within the South Australian Liberals after the factionally divided party formally rejected net-zero climate targets.

The South Australian Liberals, led by Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia, right, have formally rejected net-zero climate targets, in a move welcomed by Senator Alex Antic, left.

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The climate wars have exploded within the South Australian Liberals after the factionally divided party formally rejected net-zero climate targets at its state council meeting this weekend.

With conservative forces loyal to senator Alex Antic now controlling the SA branch, moderates are furious that the party’s Right pushed through a motion saying the SA Liberal Party no longer recognises the net-zero target.

The motion means there are now effectively three climate ­positions on offer from the Liberals in SA – the federal party ­reviewing net zero, the SA parliamentary party supporting net zero, the SA Liberal division ­opposing net zero.

To fire up the moderates even further, Senator Antic tweeted a video of President Donald Trump on Monday, jokingly captioned: “President Trump when asked about the SA Liberal Party rejecting Net Zero on the weekend.”

In the video, Mr Trump says: “We’re going to win so much you may even get tired of winning! You might say Mr President, please, no more winning!”

President Trump when asked about the South Australian Liberal Party membership rejecting Net Zero on the weekend.

(Haters are going to say this is fake!) pic.twitter.com/0e13rJQLev

— Senator Alex Antic (@SenatorAntic) June 2, 2025

Senator Antic told The Australian he was buoyed by the result at state council, saying it should help force a rethink of the nation’s commitment to net zero.

“Australia’s energy policy has got to be more sophisticated than simply adopting a slogan concocted by globalist bureaucrats more than a decade ago,” he said. “Net zero is a threat to our economy, our security and to our country, and I was very heartened by the decision by the South Australian Liberal Party membership to call for it to be scrapped.”

The result of the state council meeting created a chaotic morning for the SA Liberal Party, with senior moderates agreeing to radio interviews attacking the net-zero motion, only to withdraw from the interviews at the last minute.

It is believed the office of ­Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia intervened to stop the interviews from going ahead, fearing yet another outbreak of party disunity with the SA election scheduled next March.

SA senator Alex Antic. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Upper house MLC Michelle Lensink, who served as human services minister in the Marshall government, made her disapproval clear in a memo she sent to the SA Liberal partyroom’s app.

The message, obtained by The Australian, shows Ms Lensink and other moderates had urged the conservatives to abandon the net-zero push behind closed doors. There were other motions the conservatives intended to put that would have banned transgender sex education in schools and abolished the SA voice to parliament, but they were not successful.

Michelle Lensink. Picture: Morgan Sette/NewsWire

“The policy motions went ahead regardless and sadly my predictions have come to pass, in that a press conference today ­(focused) on state council’s decision to include on its agenda a bunch of virtue-signalling ­motions,” Ms Lensink wrote.

“Let’s break this down. Some people within the Liberal Party decided that it would be a good idea to pass policy motions, among other things, opposing net zero, after:

“One, we have just suffered a massive election loss in which the entire federal policy platform clearly didn’t resonate with ­voters.

“Two, as a consequence, the newly elected federal team has rather sensibly decided to put all policies are under review.

“Three, as a state team, we are on the record for supporting legislation to this effect.”

Ms Lensink then unloaded on the Right’s behaviour now it has control of the party. “I have formed the view that there are ­elements in our party who are so ideological, that they refuse to see that their rigid adherence to their views *at all costs* is part of the problem.

“We have people within the Liberal Party who spend all their time pointlessly trying to win culture wars internally. That is the reason why I will call out such poor judgment every single time.”

Any sign of unity has largely vanished within the SA Liberals over the past 12 months, with finger-pointing and recriminations over bitter preselections and dismal election results.

For the first time in more than a century, the SA Liberals lost not one but two seats to Labor at by-elections last year. It was the first time since the 1910s that a SA government had won a seat from an opposition at a by-election.

The party is still split over last year’s Senate preselection where Senator Antic defeated Morrison government minister Anne Ruston for the top spot.