Opposition leader Sussan Ley to announce final position on net zero

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Liberal members of the shadow cabinet are finalising the party's position on net zero following a lengthy party-room meeting yesterday. Opposition leader Sussan Ley is expected to formally dump the climate policy. Yesterday, a majority of Liberal MPs spoke in favour of dumping the target, clearing the way for it to be ditched.

Transcript

00:00Yesterday's almost five hour long party room meeting has cleared the way for net zero to be

00:10ditched with Liberals agreeing that more people were opposed to it rather than supportive. Now

00:17while there wasn't a formal vote, most have put the figures at around 28 people speaking against

00:26net zero and between 17 and 22 speaking for it. Some senior members within opposition leader

00:35Susan Lee's shadow cabinet have called for the party to ditch the climate target. That includes

00:41Michaelia Cash, James Patterson and Melissa McIntosh. We also heard that Deputy Liberal

00:47Leader Ted O'Brien was against the emissions reducing target. So too were Susan Lee's

00:55chief leadership rivals Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie. Meanwhile, senior moderates such as

01:03Andrew Bragg, Maria Kovacic, Angie Bell and Paul Scar were in favour of net zero. We've also heard

01:13from Liberal Senator Andrew McLaughlin, who's been out and about speaking to media this morning off

01:19the back of yesterday's meeting and he's been a vocal supporter of action on climate change. He was

01:27asked whether what he would say to his colleagues who might argue that dropping net zero is electorally

01:35advantageous. Here's what he had to say in response. You're wrong. What more can I say? I try to argue the case.

01:45I don't think I'm alone in the community, not only from a grassroots level, but also,

01:53for example, the National Farmers Federation, certain business councils. I mean, if you're going to argue

01:58that we're going to abandon net zero, you're going to be very alone in the community and also the

02:07business community. A clear message there from Liberal Senator Andrew McLaughlin. Now,

02:14landing a net zero policy has been widely viewed as a critical leadership test for Susan Lee and there

02:23have been questions around her leadership in the weeks leading up to the decision being made this week.

02:30One Liberal source has told the ABC that it's expected three policy positions will be put forward

02:37for debate in that meeting of the Liberals' shadow ministry, which is taking place now. And despite

02:46the expectation that the party will likely abandon net zero, it is expected that it will remain within

02:52the Paris Agreement. That's the international treaty that looks to reduce emissions enough to limit global

02:59warming to two degrees Celsius. However, we are anticipating that we'll get more details

03:05on an exact stance as well as policy position from the opposition leader, Susan Lee, once that

03:13meeting of the Liberals' shadow ministry wraps up.

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