Liberal MP angered over last-minute recall to Canberra to resolve net zero debate

Liberal MPs will be hauled back to Canberra on Wednesday for a crunch meeting to resolve the party’s position on net zero, infuriating an MP who is demanding to know why the party’s leadership has delayed a decision for so long.

In an interview with this masthead’s Inside Politics podcast, moderate senator Jane Hume labelled the divisive debate over the slogan “net zero” as crazy, arguing that the Coalition parties broadly agreed on almost everything but those two words.

After an all-in party meeting on Wednesday next week before the final sitting week of the year, the Liberal frontbench will reconvene on Thursday, followed by a joint meeting of Liberals and Nationals on Sunday, November 16.

In a sign of a looming brawl next week, conservative backbencher Ben Small sharply criticised Ley and her office on Thursday evening, accusing her of leaving a leadership vacuum and then dragging West Australian MPs back to the east coast just after Remembrance Day.

“The Liberal Party has had nothing to talk about for six months now because the leader declared all policies were to be reviewed, in a serious and unilateral break from longstanding convention,” he said, in one of the most direct attacks on Ley from one of her own MPs this term.

“Rather than fulfilling the primary job of leader, providing leadership that looks to the horizon ... we have been left at sea with no paddle. Having insisted for months we should take our time, there is now an inexplicable rush to resolve the energy policy question, and the leader has called a meeting requiring all WA MPs and senators to check in for the direct flight to Canberra at 11am on November 11 – as if there were no more important place for them to be, like their local RSLs.”

Small accused Ley’s staff of ignoring objections to the plans to recall all Liberal MPs to decide on the policy next week, describing the meetings as “a deliberate and shameless provocation of colleagues who have clearly expressed views on this policy”.

A Liberal source, not willing to speak on the record, said there were flight options available online and disputed Small’s claim that he had contacted the leader’s office.

The opposition leader has been wedged between conservatives who want to kill off the target of reducing net emissions to nothing by 2050 and moderates such as Hume who are willing to pare back the pledge but retain net zero in some form in an ongoing commitment to the Paris Agreement.

Hume admitted the Nationals, who jumped ahead of the Liberals last weekend by ditching net zero, had been more organised than anticipated and left the Liberals “a little flat-footed”, fuelling a week of turmoil.

The key sticking point is the use of the term “net zero”. There is little disagreement in the Coalition about how unrealistic Labor’s goals to meet the pledge seem to be or about the use of nuclear power.

“Net zero itself has turned into this sort of totemic phrase, this sort of binary issue – are you pro net zero or anti-net zero? – which I think is just crazy,” Hume said.

“Everybody wants to reduce emissions. Net zero has somehow become this euphemism for whether you believe in man-made climate change.”

The Victorian senator, dropped from Ley’s frontbench after the election, appeared to back a compromise position put forward by her moderate ally Andrew Bragg. He has argued that by remaining in the Paris Agreement, which even the Nationals want, the Coalition can retain an aspiration to a net zero future, even if it is after 2050.

“We have already signed up to the Paris Agreement,” Hume said. “And even the National Party have said that they want to maintain our Paris commitments. Paris commitments mean that each country chooses its own adventure to reducing emissions.”

This option and others were contemplated at a meeting of the Liberal Party’s energy working group on Wednesday, when Nationals leader David Littleproud briefed Liberals.

Tehan is running this group, whose lengthy deliberations have tested the patience of MPs across factions. Ley’s office, as well as deputy leader Ted O’Brien and finance spokesman James Paterson, have thrown their weight into the policy development process over the past few days.

He told this masthead: “There’s a great deal of understanding in the discussions. We’re trying to thread a needle and I think there is enough goodwill for us to be able to reach accommodation between the parties.

“Everyone believes cheaper energy has to be the No.1 priority, that energy abundance is essential, and that we’ve got to take emissions reduction seriously. That to me is a very good place to start.”

The meeting next Wednesday will focus on “a set of principles for endorsement and ... a set of ‘open questions’ for discussion and resolution”, as well as a research presentation from federal director Andrew Hirst, according to a memo from Ley sent to MPs.

“All parliamentarians will be enfranchised to speak,” it said.

Three Liberals and three Nationals will come together after next week’s meetings with the intent of harmonising the parties’ policies and avoiding a split.

The saga over energy has cast doubt on Ley’s leadership and served as a proxy battle over her position and the direction of the battered Coalition.

Hume said Ley had the right leadership style to navigate a tricky debate but acknowledged “I don’t know her particularly well” despite serving in frontbench positions together for years.

“Sussan is a very calm person,” Hume said. “She’s got the right temperament.

“It’s not an easy thing to navigate. Energy policy has taken down leaders before … but I think she’s stuck to her guns, and I admire her for that.”

Hume said she “absolutely” wanted to be back on the frontbench.

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