A senior Liberal says net zero should be reconsidered following the election wipe-out

Senior Liberal frontbenchers are blaming a number of reasons for Anthony Albanese and his Labor government smashing them at the May 3 election.

A senior Liberal is calling for the party to reconsider the “straitjacket” of net zero, weeks after the party’s election disaster as push back comes from Nationals MPs.

The commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 has long been a point of contention within conservative parties, and tensions continue to bubble within the Liberals over the promise and whether it aligns with the party’s future.

Opposition frontbencher Andrew Hastie – who has been touted as a future leader – says it’s one policy that should be reconsidered.

“I think the question of net zero, that’s a straitjacket that I’m already getting out of,” he told Four Corners on Monday night on the future of the party.

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie called the net zero commitment a “straitjacket”. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“The real question is should Australian families and businesses be paying more for their electricity?

“And should we allow this sort of hypocrisy at the heart of our economy to continue whereby we sell coal and gas to India and China, and we deny it to our own people?

“That’s the question that I think we need to answer.”

New Liberals leader Sussan Ley says the party will be reviewing all policies post the May 3 election wipe-out, including the commitment to nuclear energy while also trying to repair the Coalition blown-up by the Nationals last week.

While negotiations on restoring the 80-year-old Coalition with the rural and regional-based party continues, several of their high-profile members are actively campaigning against net zero.

Bridget McKenzie, with Nationals leader David Littleproud and deputy Kevin Hogan, said net zero by 2025 was still the party’s position. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Nationals senate leader Bridget McKenzie said the National were committed to net zero, but had been upset by Ms Ley’s announcement to review all policies the Coalition had taken to the election without consultation.

“Our party position is that we are committed to net zero by 2050 until that’s obviously reviewed and stays or doesn’t stay,” she said.

“If you are serious about net zero, then you have to get serious about nuclear.”

But Liberal Senator Maria Kovacic told 4 Corners nuclear should be dumped, but said net zero mattered to voters.

“Most young Australians believe that climate change is real and we have to deliver energy policies that ensure that we reach our net zero targets and that we deliver stable power … that is as cheap as possible” she said.

The net zero promise remains a major point of contention within both the Liberal Party and the Coalition. Picture: Supplied

It comes as Nationals leader David Littleproud revealed on Monday the policy will be reviewed. Picture: Supplied

Nationals leader David Littleproud has revealed the minor party will review its positions on such policies, saying a sensible energy mix was needed in Australia.

“We’ve got a party room position on this but obviously during this period of parliament, like in the last period, we’ll continue to review some of those policies, including net zero,” he told Sky News.

“I think we’ve got to understand that the world is finding it increasingly more difficult to achieve net zero by 2050 and the serious economic impact.”

High profile Nationals, including Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan, have been vocal in their calls for net zero to be dumped.

Meanwhile, the Four Corners program canvassed a number of Liberals reflecting on what went so wrong with the campaign under former Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who also lost his own seat on election night.

Failure to outline policies or late announcements and too much focus on other issues failed to attract voters, MPs said.

Tasmanian frontbencher Jonno Duniam said “fatally flawed” polling was a significant issue.

“Something went off the rails,” he said.

“It’s like having a compass telling you to go in one direction. In fact, you know you should be going in another. And that’s what we did. We made decisions based on bad polling.”

Education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said her education policy was “buried” by the campaign.

“On Thursday night (before the election), the policy was uploaded onto the website … my media release was withdrawn and a lot of incredible hard work by my team and many others right across the Coalition, unfortunately, didn’t see the light of day,” she said.

She said too much attention was put on the cost of living during the campaign, and not enough on “values-based” policies.

Mr Hastie warned the Liberal Party’s problems were so deep that without serious change, it may cease to exist.

“There’s no reason to think that we won’t disappear over time if we don’t get our act together. That’s how serious this challenge is for the Liberal Party,” Mr Hastie said.

Originally published as A senior Liberal says net zero should be reconsidered following the election wipe-out