The Liberals’ five hour-long net zero meeting, as it happened

OK, that was… a lot! We will be back tomorrow with continuing live coverage. Here’s a quick breakdown.

The Liberal Party gathered in Canberra to discuss its energy policy today, in a meeting that ended up lasting five hours and at which 49 of the 51 MPs spoke:

• This masthead understands 17 Liberals had spoken in favour of keeping a commitment to net zero by 2050, 28 MPs spoke in favour of dumping support for net zero and the views of four speakers were not clear.
• Following Liberal energy and emissions reductions spokesperson Dan Tehan’s press conference, a list of 10 “energy and emissions reduction principles” were handed out, including a rejection of the governments “unrealistic” emissions reductions targets.
• Liberal leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie said the party should think about forcing a double dissolution election on the net zero target.
• Conservative frontbencher Michaelia Cash urged her colleagues to embrace the push to dump net zero and win the argument over energy in the same way the Coalition successfully helped defeat Labor’s Voice to parliament referendum in 2023.
• Sarah Henderson, the Victorian senator who refused to back Sussan Ley’s leadership, questioned Liberal Party federal director Andrew Hirst’s research showing voters associated the term “net zero” with credible climate action. Henderson also signalled out this masthead while slamming Ley for letting the meeting’s details leak to the press.
• Victorian MP Tim Wilson proposed a new net zero model to win over his colleagues. Wilson argued for a “net zero valve” that would delay the 2050 target if electricity bills rose at a quicker pace than inflation.
• At the end of it all, Dan Tehan, the party’s energy spokesperson, did not disclose exactly how many MPs wanted to keep the commitment to net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050 at a press conference after the meeting.
• He said he needed to work on the policy this evening before it was formally announced tomorrow.
• After this, senior Liberals will meet with Nationals MPs - who dumped net zero earlier this month - to try and flesh out a consistent policy position for the Coalition.

Read more here from our political correspondent James Massola. He writes that net zero is doomed… and so is Ley.

Hi it’s Alexander Darling here, that’s where I’ll leave things for today, thanks for joining us.

Here’s something you might have missed from earlier today.

Food delivery platform Menulog will cease operations in Australia from later this month, marking the end of the country’s only locally-born major delivery service.

The company cited “challenging circumstances” for the closure decision, without providing more specific details. The platform’s website and app will stop accepting orders on November 26.

Read more here.

AC/DC fever has taken over the streets of Melbourne as eager fans arrive hours early to the MCG for the official kickoff to the band’s triumphant return to Australia tonight.

Meanwhile, 374 bagpipe players congregated at Federation Square on Wednesday afternoon, breaking the world record for the largest group performance of the Scottish instrument - honouring AC/DC’s Long Way To The Top music video filmed on the same street nearby 50 years ago.

This show will be AC/DC’s first on home soil in almost a decade.

They will perform again at the 100,000-person stadium on Sunday before travelling to Sydney.

Liberal Senator Dave Sharma has rebuffed questions over whether the Liberal Party’s guiding principles — which called for more gas, and extended coal power generation — would affect the Coalition’s path back to government through seats now held by climate focused “teal” independents.

“People realise that renewable energy alone will not be able to support our electricity grid without some gas, without some coal, without larger scale storage. It’s just not going to be able to do it,” Sharma told journalists at a doorstop interview at Parliament House.

Sharma referenced the NSW, Queensland and West Australian governments as being among those that are “extending the life of coal-fired power plants”.

When pressed on concerns over winning back seats from independents, Sharma said: “my concern is to make sure we put forward a credible policy that’s believable and plausible in the national interest, and that we are able to sell that policy or retail that policy to Australia”.

“I don’t think we should be focused on one particular part or demographic or region of Australia at the expense of another. We are a nationally based party that seeks to form government and that seeks to command broad support across Australia,” he said.

Sharma held the inner-Sydney seat of Wentworth, but lost the seat to independent MP Allegra Spender at the 2022 election. He then moved to the senate representing NSW.

OK, that was… a lot! We will be back tomorrow with continuing live coverage. Here’s a quick breakdown.

The Liberal Party gathered in Canberra to discuss its energy policy today, in a meeting that ended up lasting five hours and at which 49 of the 51 MPs spoke:

• This masthead understands 17 Liberals had spoken in favour of keeping a commitment to net zero by 2050, 28 MPs spoke in favour of dumping support for net zero and the views of four speakers were not clear.
• Following Liberal energy and emissions reductions spokesperson Dan Tehan’s press conference, a list of 10 “energy and emissions reduction principles” were handed out, including a rejection of the governments “unrealistic” emissions reductions targets.
• Liberal leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie said the party should think about forcing a double dissolution election on the net zero target.
• Conservative frontbencher Michaelia Cash urged her colleagues to embrace the push to dump net zero and win the argument over energy in the same way the Coalition successfully helped defeat Labor’s Voice to parliament referendum in 2023.
• Sarah Henderson, the Victorian senator who refused to back Sussan Ley’s leadership, questioned Liberal Party federal director Andrew Hirst’s research showing voters associated the term “net zero” with credible climate action. Henderson also signalled out this masthead while slamming Ley for letting the meeting’s details leak to the press.
• Victorian MP Tim Wilson proposed a new net zero model to win over his colleagues. Wilson argued for a “net zero valve” that would delay the 2050 target if electricity bills rose at a quicker pace than inflation.
• At the end of it all, Dan Tehan, the party’s energy spokesperson, did not disclose exactly how many MPs wanted to keep the commitment to net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050 at a press conference after the meeting.
• He said he needed to work on the policy this evening before it was formally announced tomorrow.
• After this, senior Liberals will meet with Nationals MPs - who dumped net zero earlier this month - to try and flesh out a consistent policy position for the Coalition.

Read more here from our political correspondent James Massola. He writes that net zero is doomed… and so is Ley.

Following Liberal energy and emissions reductions spokesperson Dan Tehan’s press conference, a list of 10 “energy and emissions reduction principles” were handed out.

Here’s what they are:

Two “foundational principles”, calling for a “stable, reliable energy grid” offering affordable power to homes and businesses, and reducing emissions “in a responsible, transparent way that ensures Australia does its fair share”.

Those are followed by eight “guiding principles”, which are:

• Affordable, abundant and reliable energy comes first — this principle says the party’s primary goal must be “energy affordability and abundance”
• Technology neutrality — which offered a list of energy production methods including gas, coal, nuclear and renewables
• A commitment to the Paris Agreement
• A rejection of Labor’s “unrealistic targets” — this principle specifically addressing aligning Australia’s emissions reductions with “the real performance of comparable countries”
• Social license — projects can not receive federal approval without “meaningful community consultation” and achieving “a clear social licence”
• Backing reliable energy — this includes “encouraging” new gas supply, extending the life of coal powered stations “for as long as possible”, and a lifting of the ban on nuclear energy production. It also adds uranium to the critical minerals list
• Technology and industry led emissions reductions
• No carbon taxes, tariffs and mandates

Opposition energy and emissions reductions spokesperson Dan Tehan has not made clear what the Liberal Party has decided during their marathon party room meeting that lasted for almost five hours this afternoon.

Tehan said that a list of foundational principles that will shape the party’s policy will be “handed out” at the end of the press conference he is currently holding at Parliament House.

“The foundational principles were very clear that energy affordability must come first and must be the focus along with reliability,” he said.

The opposition energy and emissions reductions spokesperson said he needed to work on the policy this evening before it was formally announced tomorrow.

“What you will hear tomorrow is our formal policy,” he said.

“And I’ve got to say, through all contributions in the room today, everyone again struck an accord by saying we have to come together, we have to have a policy and then we’ve all got to unite behind that policy.”

Ahead of Tehan’s remarks, opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh shared her thoughts on the meeting.

She said it felt like there was more agreement in the Liberal Party room than disagreement. This reflects the numbers we just reported which showed a clear majority opposed net zero.

“People did talk in consistency about the need for us to have action on bringing down emissions and our global responsibility. So I think there’s pretty much an agreement that we stay in [the Paris Agreement],” she told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

“The settlement on net zero isn’t going to happen today. We still have another couple of processes. It will go to shadow cabinet tomorrow morning, and then, of course, we’ve got a full Coalition meeting on Sunday.”

McIntosh said Australia’s energy future was discussed, including increased energy needs because of AI power demands.

“So many Australians are concerned about that, we need to be able to power that in the future. It can’t just be off the local energy grid, which it is right now, that is just not sustainable. We need to be also looking at other alternative power options, like nuclear.”