Sussan Ley says Liberals and Nationals will land on same position on net zero

Coalition leader Sussan Ley is refusing to ‘foreshadow the outcome’ of a review into net zero by 2050

Barnaby Joyce, second right, and Michael McCormack, right, are backed by fellow Nationals MPs at a press conference at Parliament House on Monday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Coalition leader Sussan Ley is refusing to “foreshadow the outcome” of a review into net zero by 2050 or say whether she believes the target should be dropped, as she faces a growing rump of MPs agitating for the policy to be overhauled.

Opposition sources estimated that about half of the joint partyroom was sceptical of the net zero by 2050 target, with several MPs expressing the hope there would be a “dismount” from the policy after a lengthy policy review process was completed.

Despite evident division in the partyroom, Ms Ley made clear there would be one position shared between National and Liberal shadow ministers.

“Shadow cabinet solidarity is something I made very clear when I became leader,” she said on Sky News, in response to questions over whether the two parties could land on separate climate positions.

Pressed on whether the ­Coalition was likely to back a 2035 emissions reductions target of 65 per cent expected to be adopted by Labor, Ms Ley indicated that was unlikely. “We voted against the last one at 43 per cent … So I just point you to that,” she said.

The debate over the party’s review of net zero, which many ­Coalition sources said they expected to conclude by the end of the year, came as Barnaby Joyce lodged his private member’s bill to scrap net zero to the house.

Nationals leader David Littleproud. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

While it has not yet been voted on, the bill is expected to enjoy support from at least Garth Hamilton from the Liberal Party along with Nationals Michael McCormack, Colin Boyce, Matt Canavan and Llew O’Brien.

Mr Joyce said “there’s got to be an epiphany” in Australia and admitted that “maybe it was cowardly” of him to have not campaigned against the commitment in the past when he was bound by cabinet solidarity.

“I acknowledge that, but I’ve got to do it now, and others are going to do it as well,” he said in the lower house.

“Billionaires, both domestic and international, billionaires benefit. Who would have thought they would have an underwritten scheme, underwritten by you, the taxpayer.”

In the Senate, Pauline Hanson moved her own urgency motion to scrap net zero, which gained the support of three other senators on top of the four from One Nation.

Liberal senator Alex Antic, ­Nationals senator Canavan and United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet all sat with One ­Nation, while almost all other ­Coalition senators abstained.

“The Coalition will not be diverted or distracted from our own policy review process,” Liberal senator Paul Scarr said, before departing the chamber when the vote was called.

Despite what appeared to be a clear directive from leadership for Coalition members to abstain, Andrew McLachlan and Jane Hume joined Labor and Greens senators in voting against the bill.

The move by Senator Hume drew particular interest from the chamber, given her demotion to the backbench under Ms Ley’s leadership, despite being a leading moderate in the party.

Coalition sources said while it was clear they needed to revise net zero in some way – by either committing to releasing more data about its cost or else scrapping it entirely – the opposition to Labor’s target needed to be executed ­carefully.

“We’ve got to watch out, or the government will just say immediately we don’t believe in climate change,” one Coalition MP said.