Net-zero chance of a bad policy for North
A NET-ZERO policy that negatively affects Northern Australia will not make it past Townsville’s federal representatives.
Both Senator Susan McDonald and Herbert MP Phillip Thompson have refused to back a policy that negatively affects the North.
Senator Mcdonald said there were more questions than answers in the policy presented to the National Party on Sunday.
There was no clear indication of how Northern Aus
tralia’s key industries such as agriculture and mining would be affected.
“It’s the National Party’s responsibility as representatives of regional Australia … to lift the bonnet on this vehicle to ensure we’re not buying a lemon,” she said.
Senator Mcdonald said it was critical that any net-zeroby-2050 policy should not increase costs in Northern Australia any further.
She said a lot of climate discussion was driven out of Europe and Northern America, which were very different to Australia.
Senator Mcdonald said Australia had managed to decrease its emissions by 28 per cent since 2005, while China had increased emissions by 72 per cent and India by 86 per cent. Now, she said, Australia made up just 1.3 per cent of world emissions.
“When you contextualise it, it makes Australia a very small fish in this very big world,” she said.
However, Senator Mcdonald said that with innovation in agriculture and mining, Australia was doing its bit.
She said Australian soil had the capacity to be a carbon sequester through pasture management changes and improvements to herd efficiency.
Senator Mcdonald said regional Australia was the key to the country’s prosperity.
Mr Thompson said that while the LNP was working on the policy, he would not support anything that negatively affected North Queensland
“I have spoken to both Minister (Angus) Taylor and the Prime Minister (Scott Morrison); I will not support policy that will increase taxes, negatively impact North Queensland, mining or the agriculture sector,” he said.
“We are going through the different policies and discussing different technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture.
“Supporting existing jobs whilst creating new opportunities for the future.”