TURNBULL WATERS DOWN COMMITMENT TO PARIS ACCORD

SYDNEY: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday averted a possible leadership challenge by dropping targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions to appease his critics, said local media, as a poll showed his government losing voter support.

Conservatives in his coalition were reportedly sounding out colleagues for a possible leadership challenge before Turnbull announced the removal of emission reduction targets from the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) policy.

Under headlines such as “PM’s leadership on knife edge”, major papers said some government members were gauging support for Home Minister Peter Dutton to replace Turnbull. Dutton said he supported the prime minister.

Asked whether his leadership was under threat, Turnbull declared: “I enjoy the confidence of the cabinet and my party room.”

The leadership talk was fuelled by an Ipsos poll published in Fairfax newspapers, which showed support for Turnbull’s LiberalNational coalition falling four points to 45 per cent, 10 points behind opposition party Labor and enough for a crushing electoral defeat. The next election is due by next year.

Turnbull said his slim parliamentary majority and internal dissent, with some government members saying they would vote against the energy policy, left him no option but to remove the emission cuts that were part of the Paris Climate Agreement.

“Politics is governed by the iron laws of arithmetic and in a House of Representatives with a oneseat majority... if a small number of people are not prepared to vote with the government on a measure, then it won’t get passed,” Turnbull told reporters.

Though Australia remains a signatory to the Paris accord, the removal of emissions targets from NEG mean the country has no legislative or regulatory path to meeting the agreement’s requirements.

Turnbull’s move may relieve immediate pressure on his leadership, though internal peace is seen as fragile as the government’s re-election prospects look dim. And having conceded on energy, he may face demands for other changes.

“It’s a complete capitulation to the right-wing members of the Liberal Party of Australia,” said Robyn Eckersley, Professor and Head of Political Science at University of Melbourne.

“Turnbull is desperately hanging on to his leadership, above and beyond everything else.”

In 2009, Turnbull, then leader of the Liberal Party in opposition, crossed the floor to vote with the Labor government in favour of an Emissions Trading Scheme, a move that ultimately lost him the party leadership.