Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan speaks to the media during a press conference in Sydney, Australia on May 21, 2021. AAP Image/Joel Carrett
The Coalition’s future climate stance remains unclear after a lengthy internal meeting in Canberra, with senior Liberals signalling they are edging towards a revised energy platform but refusing to recommit to a firm net-zero deadline.
Around 25 to 30 Liberal MPs and senators gathered for more than three hours on Oct. 31 to debate energy policy and the party’s post-election climate direction, amid mounting frustration over delays in finalising a position and internal divisions on the issue.
The meeting was led by Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan, who described it as “constructive” and acknowledged the scale of the challenge ahead.
Tehan reiterated the party would not be rushed into drafting a policy.
“There is a process that we have to go through, and it’s got to be a proper and thorough process,” he told Sky News.
He said a final policy decision would likely come by early 2026.
“I’ve said my hope was that we would—this was in May—that we would have something to announce in six to nine months, so obviously I’m still working to that time frame,” he added.
Tehan agreed that it would be a “challenge” to draft a Coalition energy policy and that there would be a need for “give and take.”
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and MP Andrew Hastie, who has been a proponent of axing the net zero policy, skipped the meeting.
Tehan said despite the lack of a net zero stance, there were many areas the party was united on.
“The regional and city MPs were able to voice their views on energy policy,” he said, rejecting claims the party’s wings were fundamentally opposed.
“You’ve got to remember we’ve also got Liberal Party MPs, myself included, who represent rural communities where the first impacts of Labor’s failed approach are really starting,” he said.
“We’re seeing smelters close, we’re seeing farmland that should be prime agricultural farmland … other types of land, which has important diversity, now being ripped up for renewable energy projects because there’s no map or no plan as to what Chris Bowen is doing.”
The potential closure of the Tomago aluminium smelter—Australia’s largest—has become a flashpoint after operators flagged soaring power prices.
Ley has pressed the government on energy affordability.
“If you don’t have affordable energy, you don’t have manufacturing,” she told reporters.
