As Malcolm Turnbull addresses the Liberal faithful at Sunday's election launch, one former party leader will be calling for tougher climate change action in the prime minister's Sydney seat.
Dr John Hewson, who led the Liberals in the early 1990s, says it's time there was bipartisan support on climate change and that the two major parties did more to transition away from traditional coal power.
He said the coal industry also had to get "its house in order" and start embracing technologies that could make power cleaner.
"It's not an easy transition, but it's a transition that has to be made," he told AAP on Saturday, the day before he is due to appear at a protest in his old seat of Wentworth.
"It's far too important an issue to be subject to short-term political point scoring."
Dr Hewson, who says he has not been invited to a party launch since his own, told AAP the climate policies of both major parties had strengths and weaknesses.
He said both parties shared common ground in their commitment to supporting the renewable energy sector and that he was optimistic about further collaboration after the election.
"They have bipartisan standing on things like national security and defence, I don't understand why they don't have it on climate," he said.
Dr Hewson has been an advocate of climate change action for many years and had a policy to reduce emissions when he was in opposition.
Despite his advocacy, he still doesn't support the Greens, which he says have unrealistic policies.
He said Mr Turnbull had not received the credit he deserved for promising to keep the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which Tony Abbott had previously tried to ditch.
