Nationals leader David Littleproud announced he was pursuing “generational change” when relegating several high-profile MPs, including Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack, to the shadow ministry in May.
Now in the first weeks of the new parliament, these victims of such change have been reinvigorated by a new mission.
They’ve formed new friendships and united over the shared enemy of climate action.
They claim that only billionaires are benefiting from net-zero policies in Australia, with Joyce highlighting the injustice while standing next to his brothers in arms outside Parliament House on Monday.
Joyce said that “billionaires” reap the rewards of programs designed to boost major renewable energy projects, and that net zero threatens everything from prosperity in the regions to Australia’s national security, as fellow Nationals MPs McCormack, Colin Boyce, Matt Canavan, Llew O’Brien, and Liberal MP Garth Hamilton nodded along.
They didn’t mention the fact that the person with the most billions of anyone in Australia, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, happens to be one of their biggest supporters.
Monday’s united media conference came as Joyce introduced his private members’ bill into Parliament, aiming to repeal Australia’s net zero policy. In response, the Albanese government appears poised to allow the Coalition to debate the plan for as long as it wants — no doubt hoping to create as much division within the Opposition as possible.
Joyce and McCormack have garnered front-page feature stories on their new friendship and plans. They have been given prominent airtime across breakfast television and on the ABC. Their push to end Australia’s net zero ambitions has been high on the list of issues that dominated the first week of parliament and is taking up serious oxygen again in the second week.
Indeed, they have garnered more attention than the incoming leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley, has been able to manage in her first days in the job.
Ley has previously announced she will establish a working group to establish a way forward for climate and energy policy.
But Joyce and his gaggle of Nats — plus one bonus Liberal — are having none of the plan from their Coalition leader, preferring to push their own way, and their own facts, in taking on an issue that was settled years ago.
Postdoctoral researcher Ella Vines does a great job of taking on the central claims behind the plan to repeal net zero in a piece on The Conversation. On the claim that Australia’s net zero policy will not address climate change, she notes that every tonne of greenhouse gas emissions is contributing to climate change, among other things. On the claim that global support for net zero is waning, she notes that the proportion of countries, cities and businesses committing to net zero is actually growing, despite pushback in the United States, and last week’s landmark court ruling by the International Court of Justice will further strengthen pressure on nations and businesses to act.
Joyce and McCormack also claim that Australia’s goal poses a security threat, ignoring the evidence that links climate change to conflict globally, as well as research indicating that Australia will likely become more involved in conflicts as the climate crisis escalates.
As for their biggest claim of all, that net zero is bad for regional Australia — backed by the Institute of Public Affairs — Vines noted a Farmers for Climate Action poll that found 70 per cent of regional Australians in regional energy zones support renewable energy project developments on local farmland. Some of the loudest voices on climate action also happen to live in the regions.
Meanwhile, the cost of climate inaction must also be considered when discussing regional Australia.
Indeed, these very MPs promoting the net-zero injustice are representing communities that have been impacted by significant natural disasters in recent months.
It’s possible that some in the party didn’t notice the record flooding occurring in parts of NSW in May, including in areas represented by The Nationals, given they were preoccupied with their own catastrophic event: a self-inflicted temporary split from the Liberal Party.
The Albanese Government has a solid mandate in the new parliament, following the Coalition’s failed efforts at the Federal election to convince Australians about their stuck-in-the-past policies. Sussan Ley appears willing to lead the party to a place that’s potentially electable in the future, and to increase the representation of women in their ranks.
However, the victims of “generational change” seem to want nothing to do with moving forward. Instead, they’re determined to distract the Coalition from forming a useful opposition and a potential alternative to the current government.
Pictured above: Nationals Senator Matt Canavan addressing the media, along with fellow Nationals Barnaby Joyce, Michael McCormack, Colin Boyce, Llew O’Brien, and Liberal MP Garth Hamilton. (Photo, Facebook).
Correction: A previous version of this story said Gina Rinehart had made her money from fossil fuels. Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting primarily mines iron ore, which is not a fossil fuel. This reference has been removed.