The government has not revealed its plan,its modelling,its emission forecasts or its spending measures while it waits for the Nationals to decide their stance,but Mr Morrison tried to assure nervous MPs the outcome would protect regional jobs.
The Prime Minister argued that Australia’s emissions had fallen more than 20 per cent since 2005 at the same time manufacturing jobs had increased,gas exports had grown,the resources sector had expanded and investment had surged into renewable energy.
As protesters outside Parliament House called for faster action on global warming,Labor leader Anthony Albanese accused Mr Morrison of being too slow to admit the need for bigger cuts to emissions and the net zero target by 2050.
Mr Albanese told the Labor caucus the government’s climate debate was a “colossal failure” because Mr Morrison was leaving it to the Nationals to decide the policy and abrogating his responsibility as Prime Minister.
While Labor is calling on the government to legislate the net zero target for 2050,Mr Albanese and his shadow cabinet are yet to decide on a 2030 target amid a division over whether to make climate change a major point of differentiation at the election.
The political debate revived the clash from the last election when Labor promised a 45 per cent cut by 2030,the target urged by the UN,while Mr Morrison accused former Labor leader Bill Shorten of wanting to “end the weekend” because he set a goal to encourage electric vehicles.
Setting the timetable for a decision on net zero,Mr Joyce suggested Nationals MPs would come to him with their concerns by the end of this week and he could put these to Mr Morrison and others in the government in the hope of responses in the subsequent days.
This is likely to take the decision into the weekend and early next week with meetings of the Nationals,the Liberals,the full Coalition party room and a federal cabinet meeting to decide the climate targets.
Mr Joyce told Parliament the modelling he had seen showed a “downturn” in coal prices but he told reporters later that he treated these as estimates only,given it was hard to forecast four years ahead,let alone out to 2050.
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Mr Joyce said he supported coal-fired power stations including one at Collinsville in Queensland,a flashpoint in the climate debate because the Greens and Labor oppose the use of taxpayer funds to help the project.
Only two opponents of net zero spoke up in the Coalition party room meeting on Tuesday,with Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan and Queensland Liberal senator Gerard Rennick both warning of the cost of the change.
Some Liberals took that as a sign that the net zero policy was “safe” because most in the party room – 21 Nationals and 90 Liberals – appeared to accept it would go ahead.
But one government MP,Garth Hamilton,a former mining engineer who holds the electorate of Groom around Toowoomba in Queensland,told the Liberal party room he wanted more detail on the impact of a net zero pledge on industries like mining and meat processing.
Mr Hamilton told the meeting that businesses in his seat were worried about the implications after seeing smaller mines in the area close down over the years.