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Scoop
6 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Australia Could Be About To Leapfrog NZ On Climate Targets
A conservative Australian politician turned climate leader has told New Zealand ministers it is in their interests to do more on climate change. Australian climate change authority chair Matt Kean - a former top minister for the New South Wales Liberal Party - met with Resources Minister Shane Jones and Energy and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts while he was in New Zealand to attend the Green Property Summit. "My message to them was we want to encourage them, we want to support them and we want to share ideas about how we could lower cost of living pressure for New Zealand households and business, how we could create new jobs and opportunities for New Zealand at the same time as reducing emissions," he said. "My message to conservatives both in Australia and abroad is when it comes to taking action on climate change, if you do it in an economically rational way there is also a political dividend to be gained." Australia could be about to leapfrog New Zealand on the ambition of its climate targets, as it bids to win the right to host the COP31 global climate summit in 2026. New Zealand's international climate target for 2030 - cutting emissions by 50 percent - is currently ahead of Australia's 43 per cent target, with both countries using 2005 as a base year. But New Zealand has adopted a target for 2035 of cutting planet-heating gases by 51-55 percent, only slightly above its 2030 target, while the Australian climate change authority has consulted on a target of between 65 and 75 per cent. Kean described New Zealand's ambition as "largely static". He could not divulge where Australia would land on its 2035 target but he said beating New Zealand - and then some - should be achievable and good for Australia. "Obviously Australia wants to do its bit to meet this challenge, but we also think it's in our economic interests to grab the capital that is available internationally to build the industries and opportunities that Australia wants to realise for the future," Kean said. "Our national interests as a country on the front line of the impacts climate change are to be part of a global effort to reduce emissions, but it's also in our national interests to build industries, attract investments and create jobs as a result of this global economic transition." He said the same applied to New Zealand, and he hoped to see more competition between the countries on climate action. "There's always been a healthy and friendly rivalry between our two countries on the sporting field and hopefully that expands to meeting climate challenges." 'Good meeting' Kean said he was grateful for the chance to meet Jones and other government ministers and MPs. He was supportive of a proposal for government subsidies for New Zealand homeowners to replace their gas and inefficient heaters with heat pumps, which the Green Building Council said would save the country $1.5 billion a year. Australia had its own challenges with gas availability, but unlike New Zealand it had subsidies for alternatives such as residential solar panels, electric storage batteries and hot water heat pumps. Building Council chief executive Andrew Eagles told Morning Report that although New Zealand households were making progress in the adoption of heat pumps and decreasing purchases of gas hot water systems, commercial and residential natural gas/LPG consumption was still climbing - leaving some gas-reliant businesses facing closure. "It's a huge talking point in Australia as well, we've got more gas than pretty much anywhere else on Earth but because it's all contracted offshore there's a shortage of gas for Australian businesses and families and that's putting enormous pressure on household bills," said Kean. "We were trying to share some of our learnings from our time in government and how we addressed it and also to hear where the New Zealand government was coming from as well." He said governments had a role to play in the energy market. "In Australia, my preference was always for less government intervention but we had to look at what government not being involved could look like, and certainly in the energy transition the private sector wouldn't always take on the risk that was required," he said. "The government putting the policies in place that facilitated the private sector meant savings for business, savings for households and a better outcome." RNZ has approached Jones' office for comment. Australia has overtaken New Zealand for EV sales on the back of more supportive government policy and has long been ahead on rooftop solar with almost a third of households having solar panels. However its electricity sector as a whole still burns much more coal and gas than New Zealand's. Export challenge Australia's international climate targets do not cover its fossil fuel exports, because the coal and gas it produces for export are burned elsewhere. That's in contrast to New Zealand's export dairy sector, which produces most of its emissions inside New Zealand. (However international flights for tourism are excluded from New Zealand's targets). As one of the world's biggest coal and gas exporters, Australia's fossil fuel exports produce around three times as much climate-heating gases as activities within Australia, according to one study. A landmark opinion from the International Court of Justice has declared major fossil fuel producers could be liable for reparations to countries damaged by climate change. Kean said Australia needed to be ready to replace its fossil fuel exports. "The reality is the fossil fuels we are exporting are not going to be at the same level of demand as is currently the case, so we need to prepare for this transition and start to build other exports that can continue to grow Australia's GDP," he said. He said Australia had "periodic table" of elements in its ground to draw on. "We recognise that China, Korea, Japan, some of our big takers of Australia's fossil fuel, are changing the things they want to use to power their economies and the reality is we're really well placed to meet their new needs, because of our abundant renewable energy resources." Kean said his message of saving money and energy while cutting emissions received a good reception from Jones, a minister who has previously described climate concern as "hysteria". Kean was a member of the conservative Liberal Party and former New South Wales Treasurer and Energy minister before chairing the climate change authority. He said his message to conservatives in Australia and New Zealand was that there were political dividends to be gained from progressive action on climate change. "In the state of New South Wales where I hail from, the forward-thinking climate policies that the conservative government put in place have now been adopted by the progressive government, so the policies are surviving political cycles, and what we have been seeing at a national level is the party that advocated for stronger action on climate change get a huge and thumping majority, whereas the conservative party that looked to backslide when it came to climate action lost a whole lot of seats in their traditional heartland to climate friendly independents." The climate authority's final recommendation on Australia's 2035 target is due to be provided to Australian Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen within the next month.
Sky News AU
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
NSW Liberals consider adopting US style primaries for elections
The New South Wales Liberal Party is considering adopting a US-style primary system when selecting its election candidates. The Daily Telegraph reported that members of the public will be able to vote on who should represent the major party under the proposed system. The plan is gaining increasing popularity from senior Liberal figures, such as Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor.
Sky News AU
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
‘Sideshow': Mundine's Liberal Party dig
Indigenous leader Warren Mundine has doubled down on his dig at the Liberal Party's proposal to introduce gender quotas. On the weekend, Mr Mundine said the Liberal Party lost the federal election due to running a 'crap campaign', not because of its female representation. Mr Mundine said the gender quota debate was a 'sideshow' and a 'diversion' from the real issues, such as the New South Wales Liberal Party being put under administration after it did not register 140 candidates for local government. 'That's cost us a lot of good people,' he told Sky News on Monday. 'Yes, we need more women getting out there, and we had some brilliant women who were in that campaign, but they didn't get elected, and they didn't get elected because we had a crap campaign. 'So let's get back to the real issues.' Asked about his 'slippery slope' remark in The Saturday Telegraph - in which he said if gender quotas are the start, there could later be quotas for people of colour - Mr Mundine said more work had to be done across the whole Australian electorate and suggested the party could attract women and young people into politics while focusing on not losing members. 'A political party survives because they focus on the needs of the Australian people and if they answer that question, they answer those needs,' he said. 'We need to look after our members, look after supporters and keep them in the party and attract other people in the party, attract women, attract young people. Now, that's what we should be focusing on rather than having this sideshow, this diversionary thing, which is not going to win us a vote anyway.' Mr Mundine said the Liberal Party should be focussing instead on 'why we lost the election'. 'Why, in Victoria, in 30 years, we've only been in power for four years? Why is it that we've got a useless government in Victoria but we can't even look like winning it?' he said. It comes after Opposition Leader Sussan Ley described herself as 'zealot' towards the issue of increasing female representation within the Liberal Party in her first address to the National Press Club last week. "If some state divisions choose to implement quotas, that is fine. If others don't, that is also fine," she said in her speech. "But what is not fine is not having enough women. As the first woman leader of our federal party, let me send the clearest possible message: We need to do better, recruit better, retain better and support better." On Friday, The Daily Telegraph revealed a 'quotas v merit' WhatsApp group chat was flooded with messages from outraged Liberal Party members after a NSW Liberals Women's Council meeting on Wednesday, where the idea of gender quotas was discussed. Members of the chat slammed a petition created in May calling for gender quotas to be introduced within the party ranks. Former Liberal Party vice president Teena McQueen was among those to blast a petition on the issue being posted publicly - a move she called "disgraceful'. 'FFS … no one struggling to pay the bills cares one bit about quotas,' Ms McQueen said in the chat, later adding 'What absolute moron is behind this?'. Ms McQueen told Sky News on Friday evening that she had been watching the chat for a week prior to contributing to the since-leaked conversation. 'And then I suddenly thought... we've got no policies. You know, people are struggling, as I said, to pay their bills ... and you guys, your greatest concern is quotas?' Ms McQueen said. 'So, I guess it was the frustration that to win elections, we need to care about things that matter and have decent policies on the table.'
