Michelle Landry MP said the Coalition’s joint agreement to drop net zero is a move that will help Capricornia households and businesses achieve a cheaper, better and fairer way to lower emissions.
Ms Landry said she was pleased the Coalition had reached a principled position, working together in a pragmatic, consultative and respectful way.
“The Coalition’s decision to drop net zero puts Australians and Capricornia first,” Ms Landry said.
“Our plan is far cheaper than Labor’s $9 trillion net zero plan, which would put Medicare and NDIS at risk.
“Our announcement prioritises Capricornia households and what is coming out of their wallets.”
Ms Landry said net zero was failing Australians and Labor’s economics of lowering emissions needed to be challenged.
”OECD countries have been cutting their emissions by 1 per cent per year while Australia has been cutting its emissions by about 2 per cent per year – double the OECD rate.
“We should do our fair share to reduce global emissions, but not more than the rest of the world.
“Our commonsense approach is in contrast to Labor’s reckless race to net zero. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has reverted to puerile politics by labelling anyone who is against Labor’s plan as a climate denier.
“Labor is out of touch. Under Labor’s net zero, electricity prices are up by 39 per cent. Gas prices are up by 46 per cent. In the meantime, real wages have dropped back to 2011 levels and 7000 manufacturing jobs have been lost. Labor’s net zero plan has lost its social licence.”
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How is it cheaper, better and fairer?
Cheaper
Ms Landry said we should adopt the best energy generation for Australia, not to put all our eggs in one energy basket.
“Our policy means opening up our grid to nuclear and removing the moratorium, as well as using emission reduction technology in gas and coal, like carbon capture utilisation and storage, while having renewables as a sensible proportion of the mix, not Labor’s all-renewables approach,” Ms Landry said.
“We should mandate the Australian Energy Market Operator to source the cheapest energy, rather than their current mandate of sourcing energy aligned to Labor’s 2030 and 2035 targets, making our grid more expensive and more unreliable.
“We should also extend the Capacity Investment Scheme to all energy sources, not just renewables, to put immediate pressure on energy prices and allow a more orderly path to nuclear.”
Better
“Australia can’t mitigate all the world’s emissions when we’re only a bit over 1 per cent of global emissions, so why wouldn’t we focus more on adaptation with direct environmental action in land management and investment in disaster mitigation like flood levees, dams and more cool burns,” Ms Landry said.
“Direct environmental action should not be about locking up agricultural land, especially when 95 per cent of Australia’s emission reductions to date have only been achieved by locking up our productive landscape.”
Fairer
“Australia should continue to do its fair share in reducing emissions, but under Labor’s $9 trillion plan we will streak ahead of the rest of the world, making us uncompetitive,” Ms Landry said.
“Labor’s 2030 and 2035 targets will reduce our emission by 4.7 per cent per year, putting pressure on households and industry.”
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