As it happened: Liberals agree to dump 2050 target; Ley promises lower prices, dodges questions on timing; New coal and gas could be funded

Thanks for joining us, here’s a quick breakdown of what we’ve covered:

• The Liberal Party has formally announced plans to abandon its policy of net zero emissions by 2050, which it took the last two elections after former prime minister Scott Morrison committed them to it in late 2021.
• This decision came after a five-hour party meeting on Wednesday where a majority of members spoke in favour of abandoning the target.
• It also follows the National Party, its junior partner in the Coalition, abandoning net zero earlier this month. The parties will now negotiate over the next two days and meet on Sunday to decide their joint policy.
• In making the announcement, Opposition leader Sussan Ley said her party will dismantle the Labor government’s environment and energy policies if elected, scrapping targets on reducing emissions and renewable energy generation.
• The plan involves preventing early coal plant closures, lifting Australia’s ban on nuclear energy and increasing investment in new gas supply and infrastructure.
• The party is also not withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. Julia Dehm, an associate law professor at La Trobe University, told Bloomberg the plan was not in line with the Paris Agreement, which requires emission reduction commitments that “represent a progression beyond previous commitments”.

Read more here.

Key quotes

Sussan Ley, opposition leader: “I can 100 per cent guarantee power bills will be lower under us. But it’s 2.5 years until the election. I want to make this point very clear: Those energy bills will be much lower under us. And on the eve of the election we may be able to give you further detail.”

Dan Tehan, opposition emissions reduction spokesperson: “[Energy affordability] is all going to be about energy abundance. We have to use our natural resources to make sure that we are bringing as much downward pressure on energy prices as we possibly can. We should use all those natural resources to do so. The second thing is we’re going to make sure that we’re doing our fair share when it comes to emissions reduction. On average, we’re going to reduce emissions year-on-year, like we did successfully in government.”

David Littleproud, Nationals leader: ”What we’ve heard from the Liberal Party gives us great hope that in the coming days that we’ll sit down constructively with them … to get to a final position that I believe will give the Australian people an intelligent conversation. Not one predicated on pure old politics of whether we believe in climate change or not. The science is settled. What isn’t settled is the economics. That is the debate we want to have.”

Anthony Albanese, prime minister: ”They’re walking away from climate action because they fundamentally do not believe in the science of climate change. Australians cannot afford to keep paying the price of Coalition infighting when it comes to climate policy and energy policy.”

Chris Bowen, energy and climate change minister: “The Liberals haven’t listened, they haven’t learnt, and they certainly haven’t changed. Instead of having a modern energy plan they want to ‘sweat coal’ which means more ageing, unreliable coal in the system for longer – and Australians will pay.”

Sarah Hanson-Young, Greens environment spokesperson: “Now the government has to pick a lane. They can work with the big polluters and the big loggers and the climate deniers in the Liberal Party. Or they can choose the lane with the Greens and we can get environmental protection done.”

With Bloomberg

Thanks for following our live blog – that’s a wrap for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with more live news updates.

Oasis fans have been urged to monitor for symptoms including fever and sore eyes after a person infected with measles attended the band’s second Sydney show on Saturday night.

NSW Health listed Accor Stadium and 29 other locations across Sydney’s airport, CBD and inner-west as potential exposure sites from last Friday to Monday.

There is no ongoing risk, but NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty said it could take up to 18 days for symptoms to appear.

“Symptoms to watch out for include fever, sore eyes, runny nose and a cough, usually followed three or four days later by a red, blotchy rash that spreads from the head and face to the rest of the body,” McAnulty said.

Around 80,000 fans packed out Accor Stadium on both Friday and Saturday nights to witness brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher reunite for what this masthead’s reviewer described as a “near-perfect set”.

The full list of locations are listed on the NSW Health website.

Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan has declined to be specific about how his party would bring down energy prices and by how much, after Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s statement that electricity prices would come down under a Coalition government.

Afternoon Briefing host Patricia Karvelas asked: “How can you go and stand in front of the public and make that claim with zero evidence?”

Tehan said: “Because we’ve seen what has happened under this Labor government, and they looked the Australian people in the face and said on over 90 occasions that energy prices, electricity prices, would be $275 cheaper by the end of this year. Now they have lied. They have failed.

“What we will do is we will use the very basics of economics. You bring more supply onto the market, you will put downward pressure on electricity prices, on gas prices,” he continued.

“We’ll work through our policy over the coming 12 to 18 months on this. We will have more to say on this, but I can tell this to the Australian people and to all your viewers today, I will not go out there and make promises which are not true.”