Name: Nationals withdraw support for net zero climate policy
Uploaded: 2025-11-02T06:50:27.579Z
Duration: 2 min 5 s
Description: The Nationals have officially dumped their support for getting Australia to net zero emissions by 2050, creating a headache for the Liberals. The decision was unanimous in a special party room meeting, which former leader Barnaby Joyce did not attend.

The Nationals have officially dumped their support for getting Australia to net zero emissions by 2050, creating a headache for the Liberals. The decision was unanimous in a special party room meeting, which former leader Barnaby Joyce did not attend.

Canberra

The Nationals party in Australia has unanimously voted to scrap its commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, a policy previously shared with its coalition partner, the Liberal Party. This decision was made by the party's Federal Council, following similar moves at state levels, and reflects ongoing concerns about the impact of climate policies on regional Australia.

While most Nationals members supported the change, some dissent was noted from South Australian representatives, who raised concerns about the effects of climate change on regional communities. The Liberal Party has yet to finalise its position on net zero, but the Nationals' decision is expected to accelerate internal discussions within the coalition.

Nationals withdraw support for net zero climate policy

A party position expected and in the end the Nationals were all in. Our party room has got to a unanimous position of scrapping net zero commitments by 2050. So publicly walking away from a coalition policy when their partner the Liberals hasn't finalised its position. Regional Australia is being torn apart and what we're saying is let's do this in a fairer way. Why would we impose a greater burden on Australians when other countries are not doing that as well? The black caravan led the party's review of net zero and has long been pro-coal and anti-renewables. The result, a slowdown of reducing emissions. We believe that we can peg ourselves to the rest of the world. We're not going to be a laggard but we're not going to streak ahead. Nationals MPs and Senators are following the will of their party members. Yesterday after similar moves at state conferences, the party's Federal Council, which is made up of elected representatives and branch members, voted to abandon the net zero policy. The lone voices of dissent came from those representing South Australia. It is regional Australians that will be paying the price for increased natural disasters. How are we going to faithfully say to our constituents that we have represented their interests? And that's the looming question. How does this make the Coalition electable? It's a repeat of what we saw with nuclear, where the National Party went out first to drag the Liberal Party into supporting nuclear, only to be resoundingly rejected by the Australian people at the last election. This is a moment for Susan Lee to put her foot down. We can't have another position where a party of government moves away from the most important investment signal the Australian economy has. We're not beholden to the National Party. We are the Liberal Party. I sit in the Liberal Party room in Canberra and we'll go through our processes. The Liberals are now likely to speed up that process of deciding whether they stick with net zero. I think it's unwise to be pre-emptive about where the Liberal Party may get to.

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