Opposition yet to set timeline for net zero decision as amid internal review and partyroom divisions over climate policy

Sky News AU

14 hours ago

The opposition has confirmed it does not have a timeline for settling its position on Australia's net zero by 2050 target, amid divisions within the joint partyroom.
After losing the 2025 federal election in dramatic fashion, the net zero target was placed under review and senior opposition figures remain split on the issue.
Deputy Nationals leader and shadow trade minister Kevin Hogan told Sky News Sunday Agenda that there was no deadline for reaching a net zero position.
'We haven't got a timeline on it, but we are reviewing it,' Mr Hogan said.
'Personally I'm really happy we're reviewing it. I supported Net Zero 3 or 4 years ago when we last had a serious discussion on it in our party room.
'But I'm glad we're reviewing it. I mean, it's been 3 or 4 years that we've had a good look at it.'
Mr Hogan cited the growing discontent in regional communities as a key reason to reassess the opposition's climate commitments.
'The renewables-only policy that Labor's rolling out is causing distress in regional communities and divisiveness in regional communities,' he said.
'We need 60 million solar panels in Australia with Labor's policy, all of them in regional Australia. We need 17,000 wind turbines, all in regional Australia.
'It's causing big issues out here — loss of agricultural land, you know, the destruction of habitat when we have to build new poles and wires.
The remarks come as Queensland Senator Matt Canavan leads the Nationals' internal review of the party's position on net zero.
Mr Canavan has been appointed to a party subcommittee tasked with reviewing the net zero policy.
He recently lost a leadership battle to Nationals leader David Littleproud, while running on the platform of dumping net zero targets.
The process is expected to take several months and mirrors the party's 2023 review of its position on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Mr Canavan and other Nationals, including Barnaby Joyce, have long argued that the net zero target is undermining industry and giving advantages to non-net-zero countries.
'The only way this party is going to appeal to the electorate is to dump net zero,' Senator Canavan told Sky News, shortly after his leadership challenge.
'Those voices of net zero, the voices of the Paris Agreement, it's all harmful for this country.'
The review has highlighted the growing split within the opposition over climate policy, with many Liberal Party figures committed to net zero.
Liberal Senators Jane Hume and Zoe McKenzie have both backed the target, arguing that the 'majority of colleagues' in the partyroom wanted to keep net zero.
Meanwhile, Liberal Senators Alex Antic and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price have both criticised climate targets.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has declined to confirm whether the Coalition will retain the net zero target, saying only that energy policy as a whole is under active discussion.