Angus Taylor refuses to quit the Paris Agreement….
Alex Antic doesn’t like Paris either
Net Zero split the Coalition, now it could split Conservatives
Calling the Paris Agreement ‘just a piece of paper’ is a mistake that will haunt the Coalition, possibly all the way to defeat.
Whoever war-gamed this phrase to side-step the hypocrisy of dropping Net Zero from the conversation without actually unpicking it from policy, has made a strategic mistake. For the life of me, I cannot understand why it was done except, perhaps, as a negotiation between irreconcilable factions.
The Paris Agreement is the central mechanism responsible for Net Zero economics.
Even with taxpayers keeping them afloat, green energy shares keep dropping. Investors know the UK economy & the public can’t take much more. Mad Ed’s UN demanded net zero crusade was never affordable or practical.
‘Complete misnomer’: Liberal Senator Alex Antic derides Coalition’s refusal to pull out of Paris Agreement
A Liberal Senator has derided the Coalition’s position on the Paris Agreement just days after Opposition Leader Angus Taylor dismissed the need to withdraw from the climate treaty.
A Liberal Senator has derided the Coalition’s position on the Paris Agreement, claiming it is a “complete misnomer” to suggest the international climate treaty is “just a piece of paper”.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor dismissed the need to pull out of the Paris Agreement on Monday, with Nationals leader Matt Canavan also walking away from his past stance to dismiss quitting the agreement as a “side quest”.
But South Australian Senator Alex Antic rejected the stance on Friday, telling Sky News host Rowan Dean that Australia “shouldn’t be in it”.
“We should walk out. It’s as simple as that. We should do what the US have done,” Senator Antic said.
“Because … it does have real effects.”
Senator Antic said the governments were often playing down the significance of “a range of international treaties” that clearly had an impact on domestic law.
“There’s another whole argument here about the external affairs power in the Constitution, which I will not bore everybody with,” he said.
“But they do have real-world force in the domestic market because they do sometimes oblige countries to legislate in order to meet their requirements domestically.
“So it’s a complete misnomer that the Paris agreement is just a piece of paper.”
Will net zero or the UK collapse first?
“Charge your car by solar at night!”
Continued:
Asked about the claim the very next day, the leader of the National Party described pulling out of Paris as just a “symbolic gesture” that would distract from scrapping net zero.
“We don’t have time to waste on side quests,” Mr Canavan said on Tuesday night.
“We’ve got to get rid of this terrible government. We’ve got to start building coal-fired power stations again. We’ve got to scrap net zero.
“We’ve got to oppose these terrible, broken promises and taxes last week and we’ve got to end the mass migration that the Labor Party has unleashed since Covid.
“They are my main quests… We don’t have time to run around on symbolic gestures, which are not going to do any of those things.”
Senator Canavan spent years on the Coalition backbench campaigning for an end to net zero and had regularly called for Australia to pull out of the Paris Agreement.
But the Nationals leader now says leaving the accords is unnecessary, adding that life was about choices and scrapping net zero was the more important goal.
“I prioritise getting rid of net zero. I prioritise the most important thing we’ve got to do,” he said.
“Keep in mind it’s very important to make the point that net zero is not enshrined in the Paris Agreement.
“The Paris Agreement, in fact, is not a legally binding document, but to the extent you do take it seriously, all you have to do are three things: you have to set a target, you have to pursue measures against that target and you need to report progress.
“We’ve done all those things for many, many years.
“Other countries that are in the Paris Agreement do those things and build coal-fired power stations, and expand the oil industry, and are getting energy prices down.
“Those are the things I’m focused on, and I understand why people want it all, but normally in life, when you try and pursue it all, you end up with nothing.”