To hardliners, PM’s trip feels like a Glasgow kiss

Scott Morrison would prefer not to be talking about climate change heading into the election. Picture: Getty Images

Scott Morrison’s decision to travel to Glasgow in two weeks’ time now appears to be the greater sin in the eyes of Liberal Party hardliners than signing up to a 2050 net zero target itself.

While many conservative MPs may have otherwise begrudgingly accepted net zero, and might have been prepared to live with it as long as the government stopped talking about it, some now view the Prime Minister’s decision to attend the summit as rubbing their noses in it.

Broadly speaking, regional Liberal MPs sharing a similar distaste for internationalism were probably of the same view that as long as they didn’t get dudded along the way, and the policy was properly managed, they could probably accept it.

However, to use the words of one conservative, the decision to go to Glasgow, has “triggered” them. The imagery appears to be too much.

So far, the external political debate has been framed around placating the Nationals.

But it’s a much broader issue than just that of the joint party room. It is the Liberal party room that Morrison will need to now carefully manage.

There is no suggestion that the divisions pose any threat to Morrison’s leadership, as they did fatally for Malcolm Turnbull, twice. The risk, however, is a significant erosion of goodwill.

Morrison will be well aware of this. But he is pressing ahead nevertheless, confident that the economic argument extinguishes the moral contest.

Having a key conservative in Energy Minister Angus Taylor driving the policy and internal negotiations has helped mollify many of their conservatives’ concerns so far. But there is now a view that the PM is starting to burn through political capital with the base in pursuit of inner-city liberals. Morrison’s political strategy is to get the issue sorted out quickly, get back from Glasgow and get it off the Coalition books with credible assurances to regional constituencies that the technology investment road map won’t cost jobs.

Morrison would prefer not to be talking about climate change heading into the election. If he has to, he wants it to be on his terms – as a job creating economic imperative. But the strategy also appears predicated on an assumption that Labor won’t be disciplined enough to resist the temptation to outbid the Coalition on 2030 targets. This is the political gamble that has conservative Liberal MPs representing outer suburban metro seats most worried.