9 Political Editor Charles Croucher talks Liberals Party room net zero stoush

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bit of a change of pace. Now let's turn our
attention to Canberra, where the Liberal Party have been fighting
it out amongst themselves as to where they stand on
net zero. Now. It's obviously causing fractures in the coalition
marriage and threatens the leadership of Susan Lee, with some
waiting in the wings, were keen to take over that
leadership if she can't maintain a stronghold. And it gives

(00:23):
us a bit of insight, I guess, into the goings
on in the halls of Canberra and well to the
person who knows exactly what's going on in Canberra is
nine News Political editor Charles Crautcher. Good morning to you, Charle.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Hey, Katie, how are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Mate? We know you know what's going on in Canberra.
You've got all the goths.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm sure it's getting harder. It's getting harder. But this
is a real feel of here we go again again
with a Liberal Party on this one.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, talk us through. I mean, yesterday we're expecting them
to meet for about three hours. It ended up about five.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Didn't it. Yeah, five hours? Listen in five chips came
a little at one point a big box of them
the potato chips, so that was how they were fueled.
And the big question is, you know, how do they
feel the country and how do we maintain our energy
whilst also maintaining some kind of commitment to reducing carbon emissions.
What we've got was a set of principles and ideas,

(01:18):
effectively by which the Liberal Party will be guided. They
include the belief that net zero will be ditched some
stage later today, there's a meeting that's coming up, it's
actually in at the moment. And then also the insistence
that nuclear must remain part of the mix for Australia
moving forward. They say they'll be technology agnostics, so they'll

(01:41):
be a mix of coal and other things, but nuclear
is certainly something they think is still part of it.
And also remain committed to the Paris Agreement. So effectively
trying to have a bet each way in many ways,
but with no real or clear or definitive idea year
as to how this all happens. There's not one extra

(02:03):
electron that has been put into the grid based on
what I've seen from these principles. That's going to be
part of the questions that get asked later on today.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, so we're sort of waiting for this other meeting
now to happen this morning, aren't we.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, So we got a meeting yesterday. It went for
five hours. That was the whole Liberal Party room. Everyone
got to have their say. Then we get the meeting
today which is just the front bench members of the
Liberal Party Room. Then they'll send three people, the Nats
will send three people. They'll discuss it, chat try and
work out a plan going forward. And from there on
Sunday the whole coalition meets and tries to come up

(02:39):
with a coordinated plan, so they're on the same page.
I think of some wisdom that was imparted to me
in the territory, which was and I'll modify this because
there's still language. But you know, if you get with
a poop sandwich, you're better off eating it quickly. This
is eating that poop sandwich over six days and turning
into a banquet. So you know, we sit and we

(03:00):
and we will see what goes on.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
And no one likes the poop sam with So it's
like I spoke for the long guys.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
And then there's the whole destabilizing to Susan Lee's leadership.
This has been kryptonite for coalition leaders in the past,
and the challenge now is how they come back together
under Susan's leadership or otherwise, because there are many waiting
in the wings. And I thought it was it was
interesting that the role that the Senate the Nevergepa Price

(03:33):
played yesterday out in front of the conservative sort of
faction of the party that walked in together, a couple
of former front benches out in front, and then the
two obvious leadership contenders right behind center, the never jimp
for Price, which was Angus Taylor and Andrew Hasty side
by side. None of that's a coincidence. That's all deliberate

(03:56):
and all a real warning shot to Susan Lae.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yes, what do you think it could mean? You know,
in terms of her prominence going forward? If if Susan
Lowe is beeson or rolled or can't sort of hold.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
On, well, I mean the problem, the problem Susan Lee
will have is that is twofold one. You know, she
was elevated with the support of the moderates, and that
a lot of the moderates want to keep nets Era,
which looks like it's going to be gone. So you
sort of you lose some of the faith behind them.
And then the other part is that the closer we
get to an election, the more the nervous backbenchers will

(04:33):
start looking around. If they hear the woodchip are coming
that is the election, and look at the Poles and say, well,
if this stays the same, I'm going to lose my job.
Then they start looking around for a life or after.
Often that means a change of leadership. So I think
Susan Lee is safe for Christmas. It's always dangerous having
all the Liberals in one room together if there is

(04:54):
a bit of doubt, because that's what it takes to
begin the leadership process. That didn't happen yesterday. So that
me that unless something goes horribly wrong in these next
few days, then certainly will be saving your Christmas. But
there are still several points of danger for her, particularly
if the Poles don't it.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah. I can't help but feel that she's sort of
warming a seat at this point.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, that's a pretty safe bet. You know, came in
with very few votes as a majority, lost some of
those instantly through a silk capterium, losing her seat and
the Senate changing and then from ban has been pretty
well marked, particularly with the way the Poles are now.
We know things can turn around, and they often do.

(05:39):
But given there are now several people putting their hands
up to at least indicate they are interested in leading
the party, at some stage it would just take one
or two votes in a small party room to change
it all. And you've seen in the territory enough times
in the last ten to fifteen years that it doesn't
take much and it can happen quite quickly when happens.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
That's exactly right, Charles. I mean the whole saga as well.
It's sort of you know, it really puts into spotlight
the relationship between the Nats and the Libs, you know, like,
how is that looking now that they've sort of determined
that they're scraping the net zero but trying to work
out what their policies are.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
I mean, the Nats will be delighted they have once
again managed to lead the Liberal Party on a major policy.
And this is It happened with nuclear power, it happened
with the Voice, and now it's happened with net zero,
and it is certainly you don't ask too many Nats
down here what they think before they let you know,
they think they are leading the way with the Liberal

(06:42):
Party at the moment, and it's hard to argue with that.
That keeps the coalition together, but you're not. In the
last two elections, there's been a lot of seats lost,
not many of them to come from the Nationals. They've
all come from the Liberals. And I thought it was
interesting Tim Wilson, who is the only person to ever
win a seat back off a teal, he was one
of the ones arguing most vehemently for keeping net zero,

(07:05):
that is, this aspiration to effectively put out as much
carbon as we take in. He wanted to keep that
because he thinks it's necessary in the cities, and he
was overruled by the majority, which is now not from
the cities. So you know, there are lots of places
where the Liberal Party, the CLP, the Coalition just aren't

(07:26):
relevant anymore. And one of them is, you know, the
entire territory. There's not a house seat in the territory
that has a SALP person representing them. Set of the
Price is the only one down here in Camber representing them.
And there are big chunks of big cities around the
country that are the same.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Hey, you know, when you talk about this whole net
zero debate, what does it mean you know for the
average mom and dad in the northern suburbs or in Palmerston.
Do you think they care that much?

Speaker 2 (07:55):
I think you hit the nail on the head. That's
the crazy part of this, all right. This is an
argument over a hypothetical. They have to get the government
before any of this happens. As well. This whole debate,
the energy debate and the emissions debate will be fought
on two grounds. One is cost. If anyone can guarantee

(08:17):
costs will come down, then I think they'll go a
long way to winning this fight. Now, the governments should
be sort of over a barrel here because prices have
gone up as they've tried to transition away. Now, they
argue it's because for ten years the Coalition couldn't get
their act together on energy policy. They had all these
switching and changing it's still going on now, and that
meant that businesses just wouldn't invest because they didn't have

(08:40):
the certainty that the rules they were playing with when
they made the investment will be the same rules they're
playing with two years down the track. But the other point,
so if you can make it cheaper. That's going to
go a long way. I think that anyone who has
rooftop solar will know that you can make a pretty
direct link between renewable energy, rooftop solo and cheaper That's
going to play into the fact that the other one

(09:02):
is is young people. You know, the biggest voting block
at the last election were millennials and gen z and
they seem pretty steadfast and wanting some kind of action
on emissions, on climate, on making the planet better. And
that's what the Prime Minister and his team are banking on.

(09:23):
That this action from the coalition will further alienate that group.
It's only going to become a bigger cohort at the
next election through it's just more of them coming through
and more of the older cohort dying off the cold
hard reality and the cold heart maths of it. As
crass and challous as that sound is that they're probably right.

(09:43):
But if this is what they're fighting a third election
in a row on, then they be pretty confident that
they have the same result of the last two, which
is Labor Party wins.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Some of those young people might have a few more
power bills by them though as well chast Oh well,
Charles Crutcher, wonderful to speak with you this morning. Hey mate,
if you're talking to Anthony Albanezi, can you let him
know that our Chief minister's written to him to sign
off on the next administrator and we're still waiting. Yeah,

(10:14):
let him know for six months, for six weeks. No, definitely,
not not for me. I like causing trouble on the
radio too much, you do it. Well, good to talk
to you this morning.