00:00So the Liberal Party today has formally announced that it is dumping that target of net zero
00:06emissions by 2050. We were expecting that announcement to be made given that that was
00:12nearly a five-hour meeting yesterday in where the majority of Liberal MPs and Senators said
00:17that they did want that target to be dumped. Keep in mind this was a target that was agreed
00:22to by former Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison back in 2021. Now while that target
00:28is dumped the Liberal Party has agreed to stay in the Paris Agreement and what that means is it does
00:33need to outline five yearly targets. But Susan Lee was pushed on you know what what is a successful
00:40reduction in emissions like what does that look like? She couldn't give an answer or a figure
00:45saying that her focus was more so around reducing power prices. Now the Liberal Party policy is to
00:53reduce emissions in line with other countries. Let's take a listen to the opposition leader Susan
00:58Lee outlining the broad idea of this policy. The Liberal Party has decided to put affordable
01:05energy first. We will have an energy and emissions policy driven by two key objectives. Affordable
01:15reliable power and responsible emissions reductions. And our energy and emissions policies will use
01:23Australian resources for Australian families so you pay less for your power. So Stephanie the focus
01:31for the Liberals is on getting electricity prices down. Did they explain exactly how this policy will
01:37achieve that? Well they put forward some examples and suggestions of what they believe will help reduce
01:45power prices. Insisting that there needs to be new supply and faster supply are what that supply is Joe. The Liberal
01:52Party says it's technology agnostic. In other words it's willing to use whatever technology at the time of
01:58year or day they deem necessary. Now leaving open essentially the door to even financially supporting
02:05new coal fire power stations. As you said there it really has been the focus of the Liberal Party today.
02:11It's all about the cost of power. So the question was put to the opposition leader Susan Lee, well when would
02:17power prices come down under a Liberal government? Does it take months? Does it take years? It's not a question
02:22that she could answer. Instead just insisting that the Liberals could bring power prices down quicker than the
02:29current Labor government. This does create a significant shift in the climate war debate again. Now we've got the Labor
02:37government where they've promised to reduce emissions, net zero emissions by 2050. They're also promising to
02:43move to more renewable energy and reduce power prices. And then you've got the Liberal Party, their focus
02:49mainly, while they say is to reduce emissions, their main focus though is on power prices. Let's take a listen
02:55to the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He spoke earlier today. They're walking away from climate action because
03:03they fundamentally do not believe in the science in climate change. They're also walking away from
03:11reliable and affordable energy. Renewables backed by storage and backed by gas for firming capacity.
03:20Australians cannot afford to keep paying the price of coalition infighting when it comes to climate
03:28policy and energy policy. So Steffi, what are the next steps for the Liberals and the Coalition?
03:34Doesn't stop, Jo. We've still got a few more days to go until policies are finalised. So what's
03:39happening now is that there's three Liberals and three Nationals. They're forming essentially a new
03:44little team and they're discussing what the coalition climate and energy policy should be. Because at the
03:50moment we've got a national plan and a Liberal plan, but obviously they need to come together and create
03:56that coalition policy. So that group will be nutting out details over the next couple of days. The Nationals
04:02leader David Littleproud though suggesting this afternoon that it's looking pretty positive that
04:06some deal will be reached. Today what we've heard from the Liberal Party gives us great hope that in
04:13the coming days that we'll sit down constructively with them to work through the pathway that they've
04:18articulated that in many ways mirrors what the National Party was able to articulate last Sunday.
04:25And that takes leadership, that takes maturity. To say to the Australian people, unlike the Prime
04:30Minister who wants to have a 2015 debate about the science, we want to have a 2025 debate about the
04:38economics. Now the coalition climate and energy plan, we're expecting that to be released on Sunday.
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