Nationals’ Bombshell Net Zero Report to be Unveiled – But Where’s the Economic Modelling?
- Nationals Senator Matt Canavan to present report on net zero emissions to party on Monday
- Review, led by Canavan and Ross Cadell, fails to include economic modelling of the cost of dumping the target
- Climate policy has long been a point of contention within the Coalition, with Canavan a vocal critic of net zero
Matt Canavan, the Nationals’ deputy leader and outspoken opponent of net zero emissions, will present a report to his party colleagues on Monday that’s set to spark intense debate. But in a shocking revelation, the review, led by Canavan and Senator Ross Cadell, has not undertaken economic modelling to estimate the cost of dumping the net zero target.
Canavan, who has long been one of the loudest critics of net zero, told Insiders on Sunday that he would be presenting the findings to his colleagues when parliament resumes, but flagged that discussions over the party’s position were likely to be ongoing.
“I’ll present the work as I have been doing the last few weeks, but you probably have bosses or had bosses over your career, sometimes when you present something, they tell you: that’s not good enough, go back and do some more work,” he said.
When grilled on the lack of economic modelling, Canavan pointed to the cost of pursuing the target and the “benefit of avoiding those costs”. “It’s very clear that the cost of not doing something is avoiding the cost of doing it. That’s pretty common-sense,” he said in a fiery exchange.
The Nationals senator also threw his support behind fellow net zero critic Barnaby Joyce, who last week announced he would not recontest his seat of New England at the next election. Canavan hopes Joyce will join the party room meeting on Monday, despite declaring himself a “free agent”.
“It’s unfortunate when people don’t feel that they’re part of the team and loved,” Canavan said. “And I know lots of people have reached out to him in the last few weeks and as I say, I’d love to keep him part of the team.”
Using a sporting analogy, he said even if Joyce was a “free agent”, it made sense to keep him on the field. “Support for net zero is dropping off a cliff,” he said. “And I think that Barnaby played a role in that.”