The Point Live: Coalition clash on net zero all but guaranteed - as it happened.

Asked about the Coalition’s polling numbers, Dan Tehan says that 12 months ago the polling numbers had the Coalition winning the last election “none of us thought from then, we would be hear where we are now”.
Except that is not entirely the case. The polling numbers were close for the Coalition leading up to the election, but when you drilled down in the numbers, particularly when it got closer to the election, it was hard to see where the Coalition was going to win the 18 seats it needed (then) to claim the election (which is one of the questions I was asking at the time – where are the seats).

My view is what all of us need to do is just to be focussing on the Australian people and getting our policies right for the Australian people and then being able to coherently put them to the next election with plenty of time to spare and that is what I am focussed on doing in the energy and emissions reductions space”.

(You get the feeling that he has had to give a lecture on this very topic multiple times over the last few weeks the way those words came out)

So does Dan Tehan think that Sussan Ley is still the best person for the job?

Well, as I said, if you looked at the polls this time last year and you said that we would be now in the situation that you are, I think most people would say will focusing on polls and start focussing on getting your policy settings right. Do that very early in your term and then get out and sell, sell, sell because that’s the best way to be a political movement that actually gets back into government and changes the future of this nation.

A powerful and wide-reaching parliamentary committee wants to hear about the experiences of Australian voters at the 2025 federal election.

After each election, the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) conducts an inquiry into the conduct of the election itself, and the country’s electoral laws and systems more generally.

Next month, they are visiting Melbourne and Bendigo and want to get members of the public on the record with short verbal statements up to 5 minutes long.

Chair Jerome Laxale says:

‘You don’t need to have put in a submission to register your interest, you just need to tell us what you want to talk about and a bit about how you participated in the election. We might not be able to hear from everyone on the day, but we want to hear from as many people as we can.’

For those who don’t live in Melbourne or Bendigo, you can still make a written submission.

Please don’t be daunted. Writing a submission is as simple as typing up your thoughts and sending them to the email address listed on the inquiry’s webpage.

It is really that easy. There is no word limit.There is no template. Everyone can participate. Your thoughts and opinions are valid material for a submission. 

If it’s helpful, here’s The Australia Institute’s submission to the inquiry into the 2025 federal election.

The latest Newspoll, first published in the Australian, came a bit too late for Halloween, but it is still a horror story if you are in the Coalition.

It’s primary vote in the poll has hit a record low of 24%. Sussan Ley’s net approval rating is minus 33. Labor’s primary vote is at 36%. On the 2pp, Labor is at 57% compared to the Coalitions 43%. One Nation has been the main beneficiary of the Coalition’s fall, with the poll putting its primary vote at 15%. The Greens hold 11% and ‘other’ which includes independents and other minor parties, is at 14%.

Today’s news on net zero and all the rest of the mess is BOUND to make that all better.

The assistant minister to the prime minister, Patrick Gorman, woke up with a little more pep in his step than usual today, because one of his first jobs got to be giving it to Liberal MP Tim Wilson.

It is unusual for one person to be so universally loathed by all sides of parliament – usually someone can claim some sort of weird affection from at least one group, but Wilson manages through a unique combination of being completely insufferable with the confidence of 900 Glenn Powells to annoy almost everyone. It’s a skill, truly.

So Gorman had to contain his glee as he told reporters this morning:

…If you want a classic example of a senior Liberal entirely focused on themselves and not focused on the Australian people, then you need to look no further than Tim Wilson’s Facebook page. Getting out there on Facebook, not to promote a policy, not to talk about anything other than to whinge that he has to come to Parliament when the Melbourne Cup is on.

Now, I am happy to come and do my job while there are sporting events happening in this country. Tim Wilson has said that parliamentary sitting days on the Melbourne Cup will, quote, ‘never happen under a Wilson Government.’

So he has managed to, in a single sentence, undermine his leader and complain about doing his job on Melbourne Cup Day. He is, according to the Financial Review, quote, ‘furious‘ that we have got a sitting week. (The Fin were being tongue-in-cheek in a Rear Window bit)

Now, I would have thought that if you stood for parliament – and this only happened six months ago, that he got re-elected – if you stood for parliament, you would be happy to come to Parliament and do your job. And you wouldn’t be running around on Facebook and the Financial Review complaining that you are not allowed to have a few glasses of champagne, when the parliament is here, debating important legislation like the EPBC reforms.

Now the National Party on the weekend, spent the week weekend debating whether climate change was real or not. Tim Wilson, senior shadow minister, spent the weekend complaining about having to work during the week when Parliament is scheduled to sit.

Anthony Albanese has started the day at a medical clinic, with Mark Butler and Katy Gallagher, to talk about the additional bulk billing money which started on November 1.

Here is some of his press conference, thanks to the New Daily’s Mike Bowers:

Sometimes I think it must be nice to be someone like David Littleproud, who can say bullshit with so much confidence, it’s almost like he actually believes it. It must be nice to be so convinced of your own view of the world that it doesn’t matter what the facts say, it doesn’t matter what the data is – you, a bank manager turned Nationals MP know what’s actually going on, with everything. And you’ll very confidently say these things in rooms where people think you must have got to your position because you deserve it, so what you say must be true. And so the circle of bullshit continues.

Here is Littleproud on housing. What would he do? (As you read this, please keep in mind that while the population has increased by about 16% over the past 10 years, housing stock has increased by 19%. As Everybody’s Home’s Maiy Azize says ‘this isn’t a supply issue, it’s a distribution issue’.)

Littleproud:

\Well, it’s about supply. And the Government – all of the program that is they put in place have been about increasing demand, which is in your segment just before I came on, was showing significant increases in prices, because you’re fuelling demand. We’ve got to focus simply on supply. This is a supply issue. And first and foremost, when they brought in $1.2 million people in this country, I would have thought that you would have prioritised an immigration system that brought in the skills that we need like some plumbers, electricians, roofers and tilers. And in the long-term, pump up trades here in Australia. But we’ve got a crisis because we’ve got an immigration policy under control and hasn’t prioritised to make it work for Australians. We’ve given the greatest gift we can give to anybody in Australia – a ticket to Australia. So why wouldn’t we do what we need particularly with the housing crisis. The Government needs to focus on supply rather than fuelling demand, and that’s why young people don’t see any hope. And they’re looking for short-term political fixes and sugar hits, rather than actually facing up to the fundamental problem, which is

It’s not immigration. And the moment that farmers and miners can’t get their labour the Nationals will be among the first to start screaming to open the borders and to force people to work in the regions. It’s not immigration which has done this to our house prices, it’s because the property market is a safe investment bet for speculators who can buy up and use our tax system to make money. And they do.

David Littleproud is very much enjoying this moment in the sun.

Asked about the Liberals he says:

This is not about politics but good policy. This is a conversation about alternative ways to do our bit, but to have an affordable energy grid and an economy that can support and continue in the future emissions reductions. This isn’t about trying to do anything other than trying to put a policy platform.

And we’re calm and methodical about this and we’ll work with our Coalition partners when they get to their position. But we made it clear, as did the Liberal Party after the election, that we had processes – individual process that is our party would run through.

We got to ours on the weekend, the end of ours. And we’ll respect and wait for the Liberal Party, and do that in a respectful way. And then, I think, we’ll come together and look at where we get to. And I think there will be a lot of similarities. And so what I’m going to do is now create that environment for the Liberal Party to get to that position and make sure that we can have that conversation with Australia about how we can continue to reduce emissions but give them an affordable approach to their energy and to the security of their jobs.

David Littleproud is also going to be using a whole heap of ‘boo hoo, we are just such a smol little baby country with smol little baby country emissions, why is everyone being so meannnnn’ in his explanation of this craven attempt at relevancy, because he knows that everyone loves to be told that it’s someone else’s fault.

He told ABC News Breakfast:

When we were only 1.1% of total global emissions – there’s only so much we can mitigate. But that’s why we think that we should pivot strongly. That’s why in terms of the adaptation, in protecting particularly regional Australian, in ensuring that they’re protected. And that’s even common-sense solutions like building more dams. If we’re going to have more extreme weather events – why wouldn’t we catch those extreme rain events and store them for when we have extreme droughts, to give us more protection. To look at protecting the environment with better biodiversity. This is about common-sense, about understanding what we can do and making sure that we continue to play our role. And I think we should continue to play our role. But make sure that we do it in an Australian way that we can afford. And keeps us strong. Because if our economy is not strong, we can’t actually continue to try to reduce emissions and that’s what is happening. We’re sending our country broke when there is an alternative way, living up to reducing emissions and making sure that we can finally give hope for affordable energy for homes and business.

Dams are not going to save us.

Climate Analytics reported in 2024:

Australia has a global carbon footprint that far exceeds its economic size and population – and is responsible for around 4.5% of global fossil carbon dioxide emissions, with 80% of those emissions coming from its fossil fuel exports, according to a new analysis released by Climate Analytics Australia today.

The report, “Australia’s global fossil fuel carbon footprint,” commissioned by the Australian Human Rights Institute, concludes that there is no sign of Australia “transitioning away” from fossil fuels – the country is amongst the largest fossil fuel exporters on the planet, and its fossil fuel exports will remain close to the present record levels all the way through to 2035.

By 2035 global fossil CO2 emissions should have reduced by 64% to keep the 1.5^oC limit in reach.

The report calculates the cumulative fossil CO2 emissions from Australia’s fossil fuel exports 1961-2023 at 30 billion tonnes of CO2. But under current government policies this is set to increase by 50% over the next decade to 2035. Along with domestic CO2 emissions, this would consume 9% of the remaining global carbon budget to limit warming to 1.5°C.

David Littleproud is proudly crowing around any media outlet that will have him (which is most) about the Nationals net zero plan, wearing the same face as he did when he announced the Nationals would be standing against the voice referendum, even before the question had been announced.

The Nationals have spent the last 15 years dragging the Liberals to the right and even that has not been enough – now the party is intent on burning it all down so Littleproud can save his leadership and the party can maintain some sort of national relevancy. The Nationals attract about the same size vote as the Greens, but they don’t get treated like a minor party in the same way. It’s gone to their head.

Asked on ABC News Breakfast if the decision to abandon the net zero by 2050 goal was based in science, Littleproud said:

Yes, we believe that we’ve got to continue to reduce emissions. I believe that man has made a contribution to climate change. And we should continue to make that commitment, and that’s what this policy does – is continue to reduce emissions, but in a cheaper, better, fairer way, for Australians to match ourselves with what’s happening in the rest of the world. To have affordable energy for households, as well as for industry to actually hopefully continue to employ people. To also look at adaptation. We’ve looked very much at mitigation. I have looked at that. But trying to look at to peg ourselves with the rest of the world.

We’re ahead when the rest of world is pivoting on net zero. Net zero is not the only way to address climate change. We should do the practical things that we haven’t been doing in a stronger environment. Investment in a stronger environment. So this is about a common-sense solution, when the net zero policy that Anthony Albanese, is going to cost the Australian people $9 trillion*. That puts at risk things like Medicare, NDIS, if we don’t have an alternative way. So we believe in climate change. We believe in reducing emissions but we should pivot when the world pivots and bench mark ourselves against them. We’re about 1.1% of total global emissions so we shouldn’t get above that. We should peg ourselves, we shouldn’t be laggard, but we should protect Australian jobs and Australian families.

*This is a number which has started appearing A LOT in Australian right wing circles in the past few weeks, but it is misleading (because of course it is). The number was based on a report that was looking at investment globally and it caused a pretty big stir and was also almost immediately debunked by experts.

Here is what climate and capital media had to say at the time of the report’s release:

The real cost of the energy transition is less than $1 trillion, not $3.5 trillion
Topline, the report puts the total cost of a net zero aligned global energy transition at $275 trillion over 30 years, $3.5 trillion more per year than we spend today. But deeper inside the report, we find that this is a misrepresentation. Business as usual would cost $250 trillion. So based on McKinsey’s analysis, the real incremental cost is less than $1 trillion per year in additional investments. And to be clear, this is before counting the rapidly rising costs of climate-related disasters (floods, fire, famine) and deaths.

Stay alert – they will use this number to try and confound people and not enough journalists know how to push back in the moment

Asked about the possibility of tax reform to address the housing affordability issue, Mark Butler said:

We don’t have a plan to make any changes to tax systems in relation to housing. We have got very significant supply programs in place. We are in the process of rolling out that 5% deposit scheme for young Australians also which means more of them are able to get into the housing market more quickly instead of having to wait 10 or 11 years to save a deposit to break into a housing market.