Liberal senator crosses floor on climate bill in fresh blow to LeyJoseph Olbrycht-PalmerNewsWireWed, 29 October 2025 1:18PM
Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan has crossed the floor to vote for crossbencher David Pocock’s climate change bill, pouring fresh fuel on the climate fire engulfing the Coalition.
The South Australian moderate declared before his Coalition colleagues on Wednesday that caring for the environment was a “conservative” position as he rose to support Senator Pocock’s “Duty of Care” Bill, which aims to make it harder to green light fossil fuel projects.
“I rise to speak to the Climate Change Amendment duty of care and intergenerational equity bill,” Mr McLachlan told the upper house.
“I do so in my own singular capacity as a Senator and I don’t profess to speak on behalf of my party.
“There has been social commentary … that it’s illiberal to care for the environment and it’s illiberal to support climate change initiatives, but it’s not.
“It’s very conservative. It’s actually more conservative than a liberal-progressive position to care for the environment.”
The bill would force government to “consider the likely impact of decisions that could harm the climate on the health and wellbeing of current and future children as the paramount consideration”.
Both Labor and the Coalition opposed it.
Originally published as Liberal senator crosses floor on climate bill in fresh blow to Ley
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