EDITORIAL: Friendless Ley’s leadership on borrowed time

After close to five hours of deliberation within her party room on the future of its net zero policy, Liberal leader Sussan Ley had just a few sentences to offer.

“The shadow energy minister will be making some remarks to all of you shortly, and the shadow ministry will convene tomorrow to resolve our final position,” the Opposition Leader said.

“It was an excellent meeting, and terrific to hear from all of my Liberal party colleagues.”

It was a cop out from a lame duck leader.

It’s clear Ms Ley is living on borrowed time.

It seems all but inevitable that the party will on Thursday formally dump its commitment to net zero by 2050, a policy conceived in 2021 under Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison.

That may buy Ms Ley a little extra time. How much longer she will last as leader is impossible to say.

But she would be incredibly long odds to lead the Liberals to the next election.

The conservative forces who led the charge in pressuring the party to dump its 2050 net zero commitment won’t remain sated for long.

And Ms Ley’s name will be added to the long list of Australian leaders who’ve met their demise as a result of climate policy.

It’s a killer for both sides. Just ask Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison, Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, all of whose inability to read the mood of either their party room or the electorate led to their dumping.

When Ms Ley is eventually booted, she will likely blame those agitators within her party who led this climate revolt, including Angus Taylor, Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

But she must take much of the responsibility herself. Her dawdling on climate policy has allowed this sore to turn into a festering wound.

The delay handed the power to lead on the issue to the Nationals. Sensing the backlash in their regional communities against net zero, they were only ever going to move in one direction.

Handballing responsibility over to Dan Tehan after that marathon meeting on Wednesday is another example of the dithering which will cost Ms Ley her leadership.

The Liberals’ new policy position — which Mr Tehan refused to outright confirm would involve dumping references to net zero by 2050 — will be informed by two principles: that energy affordability and reliability must be the primary focus, and that Australia must be “serious” about emissions reductions.

Will that be enough for voters in the centre, who rejected the Liberals under Peter Dutton partly because they didn’t believe he was “serious” about climate change?

As Liberal Party director Andrew Hirst warned MPs, these voters who include those in urban seats the party must win back if they ever want to govern again, perceive “net zero” as a by-word for climate policy. They will see this move as a rejection by the Liberals of our climate reality.

That will leave the party looking much like Ms Ley did as she emerged solo from Wednesday’s meeting — pitiful and friendless.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.