Two more Liberal MPs have joined calls for the Coalition to dump its net zero commitment despite a majority of voters opposing the axing of the policy.
Western Australia’s Ben Small warned on Sunday that the consequences of the climate target would be “economically catastrophic” while Queensland’s Henry Pike called for the Opposition to mount a campaign that would “challenge the orthodoxy”.
The pair join more than half a dozen Liberal and National Party MPs who have urged the Coalition to dump its net zero commitment, which it signed up to under the leadership of then prime minister Scott Morrison.
However several Liberals have also urged against such a move, warning it would harm the Opposition’s ability to win back inner city seats lost at both the 2022 and 2025 federal elections.
According to a YouGov poll published in August 49 per cent of Australians think the Coalition should keep it’s commitment to net zero, while just 30 per cent think it should be dropped.
A narrow majority also supported keeping the net zero commitment in Mr Small’s seat of Forrest and Mr Pike’s seat of Bowman, with 6 and 5 per cent more voters supporting keeping the target as opposed to dropping it.
But Mr Small questioned the usefulness of the polls, citing the campaign against the carbon tax and Voice to Parliament as examples where support had collapsed following a strong campaign.
“The Liberal Party needs to be on the front foot in this debate to frame the questions about the costs of the government’s policies, rather than accepting the moralising of the Labor Party,” he said.
“If we can’t convince Australians that lower prices for literally everything from food to housing isn’t a good thing for our economy, then our future as a centre-right political party is bleak indeed.”
The comments were echoed by Mr Pike, who said he was “up for the fight”.
“The Liberal Party needs to have the courage to challenge the orthodoxy, not just manage perceptions,” he said.
The Bowman MP also claimed net zero was “collapsing under it’s own weight across the globe” – a comment that came just days after UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch pledged to repeal the previous conservative government’s Climate Change Act.
The views of the two backbench MPs are not shared by all their Liberal Party colleagues.
Liberals such as NSW Senator Maria Kovacic and Jane Hume are among those who have backed retaining the commitment, with the latter warning of the electoral consequences of abandoning the pledge.
“The electorate has told us time and time again that they want to see a lower emissions future. They want to embrace net zero,” Senator Hume has said.
“When the Liberal Party is putting together its policy platform it should consider not just the seats that we hold but the 33 we need to form government. And those 33 electorates have said they want a net zero future.”
Speaking to Sky News Australia following the release of its poll findings, YouGov Pollster Paul Smith said net zero had become a “threshold issue” for many voters.
“Our modelling shows there are 20 seats that Coalition held in 2019 that it doesn’t hold today that more than 51 per cent of Australians say I will not even consider voting for a party that does not have a credible policy on climate change,” he said.
“If the Coalition is anyway serious about winning these voters back, they need to stick with a policy these voters agree with.”
Shadow energy minister Dan Tehan is currently undertaking a review of the Coalition’s net zero policy and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has so far refused to set a deadline for the issue to be resolved.
Read more on Sky News Australia
