Right-wing group targets ‘weakling’ Liberals, as Hastie pushes Ley to dump net zero

A right-wing activist group which came to prominence campaigning against the proposed Indigenous Voice to parliament, has launched a campaign to kill off “weakling” Liberals who support the net zero climate target, heightening Coalition tension over energy policy.

As Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie doubled down on his opposition to the 2050 climate pledge, campaign group Advance, formerly known as Advance Australia, is making the tensions over Coalition energy policy its focus after the opposition’s election drubbing.

Advance has been soliciting donations and urging thousands of supporters to target MPs who back the 2050 climate goal, despite the Coalition losing nearly all its city-based seats where climate change is of concern to voters.

“Politicians of all sides, from Labor to the climate weaklings in the Liberal Party and Nationals, have come out and thrown their support behind this destructive policy,” Advance said in an email sent on Friday.

“We’re building a NATIONWIDE pressure campaign forcing the politicians in Canberra to LISTEN. Not just Labor. It’s the Net Zero suck-ups in the Liberal Party and Nationals, too.

“Our message is simple: Dump Net Zero, or we dump YOU.”

Advance secured $15.6 million in donations during the 2023-24 financial year. It is associated with the right flank of the Liberal Party and employs former party operatives.

Its claims of election-shifting influence have previously been questioned, but its attention-grabbing style and populist appeal have threatened Coalition fundraising and volunteer networks.

Advance was contacted for comment.

The push to get rid of the net zero target has a key supporter in Hastie, the Coalition’s home affairs spokesman. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has put all policies, including emissions reduction, up for review, prompting another bout of debate on the cost of adopting green energy.

Hastie said on Sunday that he believed transitioning away from fossil fuels too quickly would force heavy industries reliant on cheap energy to close. He backed a move last month by the West Australian Liberal Party to dump net zero, challenging Ley’s preference for an orderly review to evaluate the merits of the policy.

“Climate change has been occurring throughout history. The question is, how much does Australia have a role in changing the climate when we produce 1.1 per cent of the world’s emissions?” Hastie said on Sky News’ Sunday Agenda.

He repeated his ambition to one day lead the party but emphasised that “right now, Sussan Ley is our leader, and we’re doing everything we can to build a platform”.

Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson, who defeated climate-focussed teal MP Zoe Daniel in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein, questioned the binary debate about the merits of the net zero pledge.

“Under a legislated net zero target, Labor is opening new coal mines, extending the life of gas projects and [teal MPs] all voted for billions in new coal and gas subsidies, so it seems like a debate to set up a straw man, when the real focus should be how we get energy policy reorientated back to a focus on price and reliability again,” he said.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen seized on Hastie’s remarks, saying: “What we’re seeing from the Coalition is chaos and confusion. Some say net zero is essential for Australia’s future, others call it ‘lunacy’ – and they expect Australians to take them seriously on energy policy?”

The Liberal MP who replaced former prime minister Scott Morrison in the seat of Cook, Simon Kennedy, gained support internally when he stood up at a party room meeting in July to say the Coalition was wedging itself by publicly debating the 2050 target.

Energy prices should be one of Labor’s biggest vulnerabilities, Kennedy said in the same week Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce pushed the 2050 target into the spotlight. Yet the Coalition had dealt itself out of the conversation by creating a “a false dichotomy ... between lowering energy prices and lowering emissions”, Kennedy told colleagues, as first reported by Guardian Australia.

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