Secret talks: Littleproud and Liberals try to hash out way forward on net zero

Nationals leader David Littleproud and senior Liberals have held secret talks on how to harmonise the Coalition’s energy policies after the junior partner’s decision to ditch net zero triggered a week of leadership turmoil for Sussan Ley.

The meeting on Wednesday evening discussed the potential mechanisms to bring down emissions and how pro-climate moderates could be placated over their concerns on climate mitigation, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

Earlier on Wednesday, one of Ley’s key frontbench allies declared the net zero target was unworkable and unpopular as the opposition leader’s camp reeled from moderate MPs’ warnings about the political cost of abandoning robust climate mitigation policies.

Communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh, who voted for Ley in the leadership ballot in May, said the party’s energy policy should match state governments in trying to keep coal plants firing for longer to protect firms from internationally uncompetitive energy costs.

The debate had moved on from 2021 when the Morrison government signed up to the net zero pledge, McIntosh said, noting that most of the 1200 voters she surveyed in her western Sydney electorate of Lindsay were against the pledge.

“If you’ve got 65 per cent of people saying they don’t want net zero, [and] they’re not just saying no to that ideologically, well, you’ve got to make a stand for your people,” she told this masthead.

“We need to find a more pragmatic energy policy.”

Ley is wedged between right-wingers who want to back the Nationals in dropping the “net zero” tagline from its climate policy and moderates who believe city voters would punish any move to back away from emissions reduction commitments.

Senior Liberals were also briefed by 19-year-old nuclear advocate William Shackel in a meeting of the party’s energy policy working group on Wednesday. The group, led by energy spokesman Dan Tehan, has been criticised by opposition MPs after it was gazumped by the Nationals’ decision to ditch the target.

McIntosh’s intervention is significant because she has been close to Ley’s top ally, centre-right factional boss Alex Hawke, previously employed as his chief of staff before becoming the member for the Sydney seat of Lindsay. She defied national voting trends and increased her margin in her outer-suburban electorate.

The dispute over whether the Liberals should dump a goal of Australia reaching net zero emissions by 2050 has become a proxy war for the overall direction and leadership of the party.

On Monday, news emerged that the senior conservative members of Ley’s team had abandoned support for net zero. Ley was reported to be leaning towards following suit, prompting moderate MPs Jane Hume, Andrew McLachlan, Tim Wilson, Andrew Bragg and Dave Sharma to demand she stand up to the right and show leadership.

“Australians … don’t want to see us give up” Bragg said on Wednesday. “I think it would be a very bad message for Australia to give up on climate action. I don’t think that’s what the community wants. That’s not leadership.”

Two sources familiar with internal dynamics in the opposition, not authorised to speak about the dramas in public, said Ley and her office were rattled by the ferocity of the moderate fightback. Ley owes her position to moderate support in the tight 29-25 ballot she won against conservative Angus Taylor in May.

One moderate MP said: “It was a clever tactic to spook people into thinking this issue was settled, but the pendulum is swinging back.”

They claimed conservatives were wrongly claiming Ted O’Brien had gone along with the right’s push, but the deputy leader has not declared his current position.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sledged O’Brien in question time on Wednesday, citing a report in this masthead about the deputy’s leadership potential and saying “you’re not the leader yet”.

Moderate and right-wing MPs alike are privately grumbling about Ley’s reluctance to make her own position clear in the climate debate as speculation mounts about a leadership challenge next year.

In a round of media interviews on Wednesday morning, Ley dodged questions about net zero. She dismissed what has become a widespread feeling in her party room: that she and energy spokesman Dan Tehan had let the saga drag on too long and handed the Nationals first-move advantage.

“Actually, the process has been good. It’s allowed us to come together, it’s allowed us to talk not just to each other, but to industry and experts,” Ley said on ABC’s Radio National on Wednesday morning.

Asked if she would be Liberal leader at the of the year, Ley said: “I’m completely confident [of retaining the leadership], and I have a smile on my face as I answer this because I know that the media and commentary does get a little bit excited from time to time.”

This masthead reported on Tuesday that Andrew Hastie and Taylor met a group of right faction allies at a Thai restaurant in Canberra on Monday night, but neither is actively counting numbers nor pushing to challenge this year.

Taylor was asked about Ley’s leadership and the dinner on Sky News on Wednesday morning, but did not respond directly.

“That’s a dinner that I have regularly in multiple places. I love a green curry, though … There were many people, a significant group, at that dinner. And look, I do – as all of us should do – talk to my colleagues all the time about lots of issues,” he said.

Asked if she was worried about the dinner on Sunrise, Ley said: “Not at all. It’s totally unremarkable for colleagues to get together and have meals. And I speak to those colleagues and indeed all of my colleagues almost every single day.”

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