Sussan Ley defends ditching net zero target amid party identity questions

Opposition leader Sussan Ley has dismissed suggestions the Liberals are losing their identity after the ditching of net zero as “commentary”.

The party said it would follow their coalition counterparts the Nationals in scrapping Australia’s target of carbon neutrality by 2050 after weeks of speculation.

Ms Ley said the party would remain in the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global temperatures below 2C on pre-industrial levels.

She was asked on Nine’s Today show whether she was worried about losing her party’s identity, with the suggestion that “this is essentially a Nationals you’ve now adopted”.

“Who’s leading who in this Coalition partnership?,” she was asked.

“I’m not interested in the commentary,” she replied, adding: “I see it in the eyes of the my children and grandchildren.

“Right now they are set to inherit a worse standard of living than the generation before them. And that is just not fair. And we address it because when energy is unaffordable, everything is unaffordable.”

She said power would be made cheaper “by having a balanced energy mix ... and by understanding that we have to be agnostic about what technologies we bring to bear.”

The Liberals were warned by some within their ranks about ditching net zero, with former candidate Gisele Kapterian fearing the impact on “the most marginal, winnable, metropolitan seats”.

She said: “The language of net zero is a proxy for how seriously we take our commitment to a sustainable future”.

‘What’s right for Gen Z and millennials’

But quizzed on Sky News about the impact on younger voters, Ms Ley said: “Young Australians have told me that they care about climate, I care about climate too.

“Where is the climate policy that makes sense? What we’re saying is we will reduce emissons, on average, year on year in line with comparable countries.

“But Australians deserve affordable energy, not power prices that have gone up 40 per cent.

“It’s about what’s right for Gen Z and millenials who, right now, can’t afford to buy a home, can’t pay their power bills and are looking at a government that is set to deliver them a worse standard of living than their parents. That’s just not fair.”

Following the Liberals’ decision on Thursday, the party’s energy spokesman Dan Tehan will lead a Liberal delegation taking the position to the Nationals to thrash out a joint position.

Before the Liberals announced their position on Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters the opposition was considering walking away from net zero because “they fundamentally do not believe in the science in climate change”.

More to come...