Liberal Senator Alex Antic believes the party needs to abandon net zero if it wants to appeal to Australian voters in the future.
This comes after the Coalition won just 43 seats in the House of Representatives at the federal election compared to 93 for Labor, with two seats still in doubt.“We have to drown out those voices of net zero, the voices of the Paris agreement, it’s all harmful for this country,” Antic told Sky News Australia.
Antic said he didn’t know what direction the Liberal Party leadership would take on net zero but made his position clear.
“I think the only way this party is going to appeal to the electorate is to dump net zero we have to do it.” he said.
Australia a ‘Big Government Country’
The conservative Senator, who was number one on the Senate ticket for South Australia at the election, also shed light on what he thought went wrong in the election campaign.“We’ve become a big government country that is used to handouts, and I think there was a view inside the party that we need to pander to that and outspend the Labor Party, so we lost the economic narrative,” he said.
Antic also said he thinks the Liberal Party “needs to shift back to the right.”
“I have been quite open about that, but that’s because I think the vast majority of Australians are centre-right voters, as The Voice [referendum] showed,” he said.Variety of Views Within the Liberal Party
Meanwhile, Liberal Senate Deputy Leader Anne Ruston, also from South Australia, said there was a “divergence” of views in the party room on net zero.“But right now, I absolutely think the thing we need to concentrate on is making sure that people can afford their power bills,” she told ABC Insiders.
“Emissions reduction is an important part of policy going forward because energy is the economy and we need to get the policy right.”
The Coalition committed to meeting net zero emissions by 2050 and replacing seven retiring coal plants with nuclear ahead of the election.
Meanwhile, Liberal leader Sussan Ley said the party she led would not change its enduring commitment to what is best for Australia’s national interest. She avoided mentioning net zero specifically in her social media post about the party’s direction.
“Our policies are up for review. But our values are not,” she said on Facebook.
“We will always stand for lower, simpler, and fairer taxes—not as an economic ideology, but because we trust people to spend their own money more than we do the government.”
Ley, who won a leadership ballot for the party 29 votes to 25 in a ballot on May 13, said she committed to a full assessment on why the Liberal Party lost the election.
Bowen Pushes Ahead with Renewable Energy
While the Liberals are reflecting on their strategy going forward, Labor is moving forward with its agenda following the election.Following Labor’s election win, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen committed to continuing to build a “clean, reliable energy grid endorsed by the Australian people” in the next three years.
“A grid powered by renewable energy, backed by gas, batteries, and pumped hydro. This approach is backed by expert advice, and our Government has acted on that advice,” he said on BlueSky.
“Australians have backed Labor to deliver an energy plan that tackles the challenges of the here and now while seizing the opportunities.”
