Editorial: Anthony Albanese’s climate attack against Peter Dutton sparks unnecessary bickering

Here’s a handful of barbecue-stopping conversation topics in 2024: cost-of-living, immigration, what’s going through RBA governor Michele Bullock’s mind, whether the Eagles have any hope whatsoever of a win without Harley Reid. What’s not on the list is whether Peter Dutton or Scott Morrison is the Liberal leader to have the worse record on climate. And yet that is the debate currently consuming our Federal politicians after Mr Dutton expressed scepticism at the weekend that Australia could meet its carbon emission reduction goals. Anthony Albanese led the attack, saying Mr Dutton was “walking away from climate action”, a position which put him in the company of Libya, Yemen and Iran. “You can’t shape the future if you’re afraid of it, and Peter Dutton is afraid of the future,” the Prime Minister said.. “He’s incapable of leading Australia towards the future that we need. Peter Dutton is worse than Scott Morrison on climate change. He is all negativity and no plan.” Other ministers, including Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, Resources Minister Madeleine King and Education Minister Jason Clare also gleefully piled on. And that of course, pushed the Coalition into doing a whole lot of backpedalling, explaining and blame-shifting themselves. Mr Dutton’s comment that Labor had “no hope of achieving” its present target of reducing emissions by 43 per cent on 2005 levels and “there’s no sense signing up to targets you don’t have any prospect of achieving” should not have been taken as an indication that Australia would walk away from climate action altogether, they said. The Opposition clarified that they would remain committed to the Paris agreement and the goal of net zero by 2050. “What we’re saying is that we won’t have a linear pathway. There will be a ramp-up at the end in us achieving that goal of net zero by 2050,” Nationals leader David Littleproud said. Australians could be forgiven for asking: what’s all this got to do with the price of eggs? Because it’s the cost of the weekly grocery shop that is weighing most heavy on their minds, along with fretting over the impact of a potential further interest rate rise. That’s not to say that action on climate change is unimportant. That debate is done. We know we need to reduce emissions if we’re to have any hope of a healthy and productive future. The climate wars are over everywhere except Canberra, it seems. Australians know the mission to reach net zero is crucial. And while industry is busy at work developing the technologies that will help us get there, our politicians continue to bicker over who’s the bigger climate baddie. It’s a distraction no one asked for. Politicians on both sides would be better off focusing their efforts on getting right the policy settings we need to make our net zero future a reality, or get out of the way. Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by WAN Editor Christopher Dore