Queensland Nationals candidate Colin Boyce to campaign against net zero

The National Party candidate in the battleground central Queensland seat of Flynn, Colin Boyce, will campaign against the government’s net zero policy.

Queensland Nationals candidate Colin Boyce, in Brisbane on Monday, says ‘I do not ­support zero net carbon emissions by 2050, particularly when there’s no logical explanation to it.’ Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The Nationals candidate in the battleground central Queensland seat of Flynn, Colin Boyce, will campaign openly against the ­government’s net-zero policy.

Mr Boyce, currently an MP in the Queensland parliament, said he would support his Rockhampton-based colleague Matt Canavan in speaking out against the policy in the lead-up to the federal election, despite the party’s position to support it.

A grazier and boilermaker who was elected as the member for Callide in 2017, Mr Boyce said workers in the beef cattle and resources-dominated Flynn electorate stood to lose out under a net-zero target. Flynn is historically a closely contested seat and was on a margin of 1 per cent ­before the last election, in which a backlash against Labor’s perceived ambivalence toward the coal industry contributed to a massive swing against the party in regional Queensland.

Mr Boyce told The Australian the anger and fear was still palpable on the ground. “I do not ­support zero net carbon emissions by 2050, particularly when there’s no logical explanation to it, and I will fight vehemently for people’s jobs in central Queensland.” Mr Boyce said.

“Has anybody got any substantial explanation as to how that ­affects a central Queensland electorate like Flynn that is very heavily carbon intensive?

“How can somebody possibly explain that zero net carbon by 2050 is not going to affect those industries and those people’s jobs and livelihoods?”

Mr Boyce has previously crossed the floor to vote against his LNP colleagues in the state parliamentary chamber, and said he would consider doing the same in Canberra if he is part of a future Morrison government.

“I will continue on in the same vein as what I have,” he said.

“Should I get to Canberra and be the member for Flynn … ­obviously, these discussions will then come up again in the next parliament and I would argue against them.

“I’m a fellow who will have a disagreement if I have to and that’s exactly what I’ll do. I think I’ve shown that I’m prepared to raise my colours and defend what I believe is correct.”

Flynn is held with a margin of 8.6 per cent by the LNP’s Ken O’Dowd, who will retire at the next election, when Mr Boyce will go up against ALP challenger Matt Burnett, the mayor of Gladstone, who supports a net-zero by 2050 target.

Mr Boyce, who was preselected for Flynn in July, has previously told The Australian he backed coal-fired power to ensure the future of central Queensland’s heavy industry sector.

“A place like Flynn is very much the economic engine room for Australia,” he said, listing the region’s agriculture, coal, shipping and gas employers.

The central Queensland electorate is dominated by emissions-heavy mining and agriculture, with Census data listing coal­mining (7.2 per cent) and beef ­cattle farming (5.2 per cent) as the two biggest employers.

Mr Boyce said the upcoming Glasgow climate change conference, which Scott Morrison will attend, was impractical because several of the world’s largest carbon emitters would not be there.

“I would suggest that this Glasgow conference that the world is going to is devoid of the big carbon emitters, or at least some of the big carbon emitters – China and India, Russia and so forth – and the reality is that Australia is one of the few countries in the world that’s actually meeting its commitments, according to the Kyoto agreement,” Mr Boyce said.

The Nationals’ acquiescence has enraged some of its strongest supporters in regional Queensland who say they feel betrayed by the change in policy direction.

Former Clermont publican Kel Appleton, whose advocacy against the Bob Brown-led anti-Adani convoy was credited with helping the Coalition to victory in 2019, said the Nationals had turned their back on Queensland’s resources industry.

The long-time Nationals voter said he would be voting for One Nation or the United Australia Party in the future.

In a public post from the “Don’t Go Cold on Coal” Facebook page, Mr Appleton apologised to his followers for the perceived deception.

“To all the people that supported the ‘Don’t Go Cold on Coal’ rally and those that sponsored us in our fight for the coal industry, I apologise sincerely,” he wrote. “We have been lied to and let down.”

Mr Appleton, who sold the Grand Hotel in the mining town earlier this year and moved to the coastal town of Yeppoon, east of Rockhampton, told The Australian he still supported Senator Canavan, but would not vote for his party.

“I am very disappointed,” he said. “They’re gambling with our livelihoods.

“They credited our rally with helping to win the election, but then we’re all just left in the dark.

“They’re just lying to us.”