Nats zero
Sussan Ley’s first big moment in parliament as Liberal leader was overshadowed by Coalition infighting, with Nationals MPs reviving old battles over net zero and energy policy.
Rising to a muted “hear, hear” before her first big moment in parliament as Liberal leader, Sussan Ley attempted to project the image of a new, constructive Coalition.
Ley used her first two questions to ask the prime minister whether he would “work constructively” with the Coalition to solve the housing crisis and repeal the government’s “unfair” superannuation tax.
By that stage, however, she had already been derailed by two men on her own backbench, who spent Wednesday morning reminding voters of the Coalition’s past.
With barely concealed ambitions for a leadership return, Nationals MP Michael McCormack detonated a bomb under the uneasy truce between the Coalition’s two parties. He announced he would back Barnaby Joyce’s private member’s bill calling for net zero to be scrapped.
