TRANSCRIPT:
Opposition leader Sussan Ley is once again dealing with deepening internal divisions, as frontbencher Andrew Hastie threatens to quit if the Coalition doesn't abandon net zero.
Laying out a catastrophic vision of the years ahead, Monday's release of the National Climate Risk Assessment made for sober reading and will help inform Labor's upcoming emissions reduction target.
Despite dire warnings in the report, opposition home affairs spokesman and aspiring Liberal leader Andrew Hastie brushed off the findings, dismissing the scientific report as fear-mongering.
Among a growing number of net-zero opponents within the Coalition, Andrew Hastie told ABC Radio Perth if the Coalition kept the net zero target, he'd be out of the job.
"I mean everyone is whispering that anyway so I may as well just say it out loud. I've nailed my colours to the mast, I went on Four Corners and I said the net zero policy is a straightjacket for our economy and our country. And I believe that."
Sussan Ley maintains she wants the established post-election review on a net zero policy to play out before she makes a decision on the matter.
After losing the May election, Ms Ley ordered a lengthy internal review of the emissions reduction goal and other policies.
Since then, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce introduced a private members’ bill to the lower house to repeal net zero.
Nationals Senator for Queensland Matt Canavan has also been outspoken on the matter, introducing his own bill to repeal net zero in the senate.
Likening the report to apocalyptic bible passages, he told Sky News the report is exaggerating the risks.
"These guys are cynically trying to increase the size of government, introduce new taxes, employ massive amounts of new climate bureaucrats who will intrude into every Australian's lives. The agenda so much is not to change the temperature of the globe, because, of course, Australia, as you have said, can't do that alone. The transparent agenda of this Labor government is to put more of the foot of government on everybody's neck. That's what they're trying to do here."
Shadow education minister Jonathan Duniam told Sky News if net zero is pursued, the Coalition may be facing a mass exodus.
"Look if we just said net zero at any cost by 2050 I think you'd find there'd be a mass exodus. The reality is that most of the members of our front bench and indeed most of the members of our party room are interested in making sure that whatever we do, if it is to retain net zero by 2050, doesn't come at whatever the cost might be. Unlimited cost."
The Australian Climate Service, which put together the risk assessment, is a partnership between the Bureau of Meteorology , the CSIRO, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Geoscience Australia.
The report warns the cost of disaster recovery payments could rise by $40 billion a year as climate hazards compounded.
It has been described by many - including the government, climate experts and former security leaders - as a grim and sobering read.
Mr Hastie says the report only makes for sobering reading if you actually believe what is in it, accusing those who wrote it of being politically compromised.
"I think this is a lot of climate alarmism put together by politically compromised, economically insulated public servants who are running cover for Labor, who are effectively providing cover for Labor's massive wealth grab under the cover of climate alarmism which is going to take place under the net zero transition."
He says his position on net zero is not a deviation from the beliefs and interests of the broader party.
"We've now had the WA Liberal Party, we've had the NT country party, we've had the LNP in Queensland, we've had the South Australian Liberal party, we've now that the Victorian Liberal Party yesterday express a desire to get out of net zero and start putting Australia first so I'd say, I'm in keeping with my party."
As the Coalition continues its debate on net zero, the Albanese Labor government is gearing up to announce the long-awaited 2035 emissions reductions target.
Early advice provided to the government by the Climate Change Authority suggested a reduction in emissions of between 65 and 75 per cent by 2035, leading to speculations a target range would be set, rather than a single figure.
Facing a parliamentary inquiry into the assessment, Treasury officials revealed they were only asked to analyse the economic impacts of one number as a climate target, rather than multiple options.
Declining to share the figure, or whether work on the modelling started before the election, the revelations raise questions over whether the government decided on a target well before they let on.
Greens leader Larissa Waters says the government is making a mockery of the science.
"Treasury are modelling a 2035 target. They're just modelling one - they're not modelling a range, they're not modelling options - they're modelling one target for 2035 and they chose that before the election. It's almost like the climate risks and the CCA advice don't really matter, because the Prime Minister decided what the target was going to be before the election. It has made a mockery of the process of actually looking at the climate science and determining the risks."
