Nationals minister Bridget McKenzie has refused to say whether the junior Coalition partner would block any increased ambition on climate policy in the event Scott Morrison attempted to form a minority government with the support of teal independents after 21 May.
Despite facing multiple questions about the Nationals’ position on the ABC on Monday morning, McKenzie declined to be candid about whether or not her party would accept any increase in the government’s widely criticised medium term emissions reduction target.
While the Nationals ended up signing on to Morrison’s commitment of net zero emissions by 2050, MPs remain publicly split on the target, with Matt Canavan characterising the pledge to the United Nations as “dead” and the Nationals’ candidate in Flynn characterising net zero as a flexible non-binding plan that leaves plenty of “wriggle room”.
During last year’s Nationals party room debate on net zero, the party leader, Barnaby Joyce, made it clear to colleagues he didn’t support the mid-century target. The Nationals also vetoed Morrison’s attempt to increase the 2030 target in the run-up to the Glasgow climate conference last year.
Asked whether the Nationals would flex their muscle post-election to block more ambitious Coalition climate policy commitments in return for undertakings from the crossbench about confidence and supply, McKenzie stepped around the point: “We are committed to moving towards net zero by 2050”.
“We are looking forward to the opportunities that will provide our communities,” she said. “At the end of the day, rural and regional Australia – and this has been, I think, they thing that has been forgotten for the decade of the so-called climate wars – it was always going to be the regions that ended up paying the price."
“We’ve been able to broker an outcome because the Liberal and National parties work together, unlike the Labor party.”
Pressed on whether the Nationals would countenance a change in the Coalition’s medium-term emissions reduction target to stay in government, McKenzie declared: “I’m not dealing in hypotheticals.”
This is not a hypothetical. As pre-poll voting opened on Monday, the latest opinion polls have Labor in front of the government, but strategists on both sides think there is a significant risk of a hung parliament given polls also suggest a chunk of voters are looking to support a candidate from outside the major parties.
The teal independents have been entirely clear they want a more ambitious medium-term emissions reduction target in the event any of them making it to parliament. McKenzie avoided answering the question by reverting to a Coalition talking point.
“The prime minister has made it very, very clear, the worst outcome for our nation is a hung parliament, and the last time a minority government was formed with rural independents it decimated the regions on a whole range of policy fronts,” she said.
“It is not the best outcome.”
McKenzie’s contention about the decimation of regional electorates during the last minority parliament is incorrect.
During the 43rd parliament, the two rural independents McKenzie cited – Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott – delivered significant new investments in their northern New South Wales regions courtesy of concessions extracted from Labor in return for their support in confidence and supply votes.
The two faced a backlash in their regions for supporting a Labor government, not for failing to deliver infrastructure and services for their communities.
McKenzie on Monday sought to diminish the climate focused independents with a sexist slur. She characterised the teal independents – all women – as “Simon Holmes à Court’s groupies”.
Holmes à Court runs the Climate 200 group which has raised funds to help bankroll some of the political campaigns against incumbent Liberals in the major cities.
Challenged on the sexist slur, McKenzie said she noted the independents didn’t want to be called a political party: “I’m very very happy to call them Simon Homes à Court’s political party if you like.”
A key attack line in the teal campaigns is it is pointless to support moderate Liberals like Dave Sharma or Trent Zimmerman, because ultimately they vote the same way as Barnaby Joyce.
McKenzie was asked whether the Nationals’ longstanding obduracy on climate action was actually a key contributor to the rise of the climate-focused independents. The Nationals minister suggested that wasn’t a factor.
“We’ve been able to broker a fantastic result around climate change, actually bringing the regions, which would have been the communities adversely affected by decarbonisation, by net zero – we’ve been able to develop plans for rural and regional Australians that they’ll be able to seize the opportunities that net zero by 2050 will provide them,” she said.
“We’re absolutely focused on fighting for a number one against a Liberal if you’ve got a Liberal candidate in your electorate and a number one if you’ve got a National.”
