The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, is facing growing pressure from conservative Liberal MPs to dump their commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, with a new hardline position from the Nationals inflaming tensions within the Coalition.
Ley has been urged to call a special party room meeting this week to resolve the growing split, as forces aligned with leadership rival Angus Taylor argue the Liberals should match the Nationals’ position which was announced over the weekend.
Some moderate Liberals want a meeting held as soon as this week, warning further internal debate could weaken Ley’s struggling leadership and give the Albanese government a free pass on the hot-button political issue of rising energy prices.
Ley met the Liberal leadership team at Parliament House on Monday, ahead of a regularly scheduled meeting of Liberal and National MPs on Tuesday.
One possible pathway could involve the Liberal leadership group settling a position in Canberra this week, ahead of a special party room meeting before parliament resumes for the final sitting fortnight of the year on 24 November.
Ley’s backers said the opposition leader was eager to settle the issue as soon as possible, and believed the majority of Liberal MPs considered net zero a straightforward policy decision, while small numbers on both sides of the debate wanted to agitate on the issue.
However, others in the Liberal caucus believe they should not be rushed into making a decision by the Nationals’ decision to scrap its net zero commitments, conscious of public discussion that the “tail was wagging the dog” if the Liberal position was once again dictated by their junior Coalition partner.
In brief comments outside a charity event, Ley downplayed the Nationals’ decision, saying it was not unexpected and that Coalition processes would continue to determine a joint Liberal-National position.
“I always said that the Nationals would come to their decision in their party room and the Liberals would similarly come to our decision in our party room. But our joint energy working group has done an incredibly sound job up until this point in time, it’s continuing, and we can look forward to a Liberal party energy position and then coming together as a Coalition,” Ley said.
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One moderate MP told Guardian Australia any decision that won backing from the leadership group would find broad support in the wider Liberal party room, noting diverse views among moderates and conservatives, including Ley’s deputy, Ted O’Brien, senators James Paterson, Michaelia Cash and Anne Ruston, and lower house MPs Angus Taylor and Alex Hawke.
Taylor, Cash and Paterson are understood to have called for net zero policies to be dumped. But the debate has raised the spectre of another split in the Coalition if the Liberals cannot agree on a compromise position.
The two parties had a brief post-election breakup after the Liberals refused to immediately adopt several Nationals policies, including on nuclear energy.
One moderate Liberal said the net zero debate was now a threat to the future of the Coalition.
However, the MP said a “restraining factor” for Liberals wanting to retain a firm net zero position was concern it could destabilise Ley’s leadership.
The Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg said net zero must be retained in “some form” and was confident the Coalition could agree such a position.
Bragg’s language confirmed he was open to a watered-down version of the net zero by 2050 commitment that Scott Morrison made in 2021.
The Western Australian Liberal senator Dean Smith implored his colleagues to keep the focus on Labor on Monday, insisting voters wanted the government to be held accountable on power prices.
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“We are about to enter the summer. Electricity prices are at the core of refrigeration and cooling. I think Australians are going to feel first-hand the high cost of Labor’s energy policies.
“The key point of focus here is Labor’s failings on energy policy that are driving up costs for families, that are driving up costs for businesses and, as we’ve seen unfortunately, driving significant industrial enterprises out of business.”
Smith said he was a “strong coalitionist”, and did not support calls for another split of the Liberals and Nationals.
The Victorian Sarah Henderson said the Liberal party should support the Nationals’ position opposing net zero.
“Electricity prices are skyrocketing, emissions are flatlining, and that’s why I believe that we will get to a position where we will work together to reject Labor’s net zero laws,” she said.
“We will work through our own internal processes. I just hope we reach a position as soon as possible. I don’t think this can go on for a long time.”
The frontbencher Melissa McIntosh said the opposition needed to be strong and united to get its message to voters.
“I don’t support net zero on behalf of my community, because they are paying the price.
“It is not politics, it is not ideology, it is around people’s survival in the suburbs of Australia. But we will come to a solution … and I’m sure we will work out a pragmatic energy policy that suits our electorates.”
The Liberal backbencher Rick Wilson was the latest to back Barnaby Joyce’s private member’s bill on net zero, speaking in support in the parliament on Monday. He raised concerns about the “visual and noise pollution, and potential adverse health effects” of renewable energy projects.
