Weak Lib Party ‘moderates’ as shameless as internal net zero opponents

It’s not a fun time to be a Liberal Party moderate. This year’s federal election wiped out a series of heavyweights, reducing the faction to just 16 members out of a partyroom of 51. It was also the second election in which teals tightened their grip over the inner-city seats traditionally the domain of moderate MPs.

The faction has now been comprehensively steamrolled on net zero, with the party of Robert Menzies last week adopting the climate change policies of a bunch of reckless and ignorant political operatives otherwise known as the Nationals.

The final policy is actually far worse than it seems at first glance. Not only has the Liberal Party abandoned any commitment to net zero, it also pledged to scrap Labor’s legislated suite of emissions reduction mechanisms and opened the door to using taxpayer funds to subsidise new or extended coal-fired power plants.

The Herald does not dispute that rising energy costs are a massive challenge for consumers and industry. But for many conservative MPs, this new policy is climate denialism masked as concern for affordability.

Before Wednesday’s partyroom showdown on net zero, Liberal moderates were threatening to quit the frontbench should the party drop its Scott Morrison-era commitment to net zero.

Any moderate with a shred of self-respect would step off the frontbench in protest at what has unfolded. Yet six days on from the effective takeover of the Liberal Party by the Nationals, not one moderate MP has quit.

For the record, moderates on the frontbench include Anne Ruston, Andrew Bragg, Maria Kovacic, Kerrynne Liddle, Angie Bell, Dave Sharma, Tim Wilson, Melissa Price and Julian Leeser. Another is Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, but principle clearly matters little when she is trying to cling on to her job. Only four years ago, Ley went on television to declare that “no one wants to get to net zero more than I do”.

The anti-net zero bloc: Senator Jessica Collins, opposition defence spokesman Angus Taylor, Senator Sarah Henderson, former frontbencher Andrew Hastie and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price with other Liberal MPs and senators arriving for the partyroom showdown.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

As nominal leader of the faction, Ruston should be leading the charge against the humiliation of the moderates. Instead, she awkwardly stood beside Ley last week as the party announced its new policy. Asked how she could justify her ongoing position, Ruston replied: “Reality tells us that we were always going to have to come to a compromise.” What happened last week was not compromise – it was total defeat at the hands of the conservatives.

Bragg has also told colleagues that he won’t quit because while the party may have ditched net zero, it has not withdrawn from the crucial Paris climate agreement. This is a view other moderates are espousing.

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The overarching goal of the treaty is to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels and as close to 1.5 degrees as possible. It requires countries to cut emissions consistently to reach this goal. And while there are no financial penalties for breaches, the treaty prohibits signatories from backsliding on their targets.

The truth is that the Liberals have no interest in meeting Australia’s obligations under Paris – and the gutless moderates still sitting on the opposition frontbench know it.

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