Tony Abbott calls on Coalition to ditch net zero, warns of threat to economy and security

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has urged the Coalition to abandon all net zero commitments, warning that the policy endangers Australia’s economy, energy reliability and national way of life.

“I’d be saying we should never put reducing emissions ahead of national security and economic prosperity,” he told Sky News.

Mr Abbott argued that the Coalition’s fear of losing support from teal voters has paralysed its climate policy and prevented it from challenging what he called the “false narrative” about climate change.

“Frankly, reducing emissions is nice to do, but the net zero straitjacket is doing all sorts of damage to our country, and we’ve just got to get away from it,” he said.

“Now, let’s be blunt, there is no climate crisis, and to the extent that climate is changing, we shouldn’t assume that mankind is the main factor in it,” he added.

“It’s time for some blunt talk with the Australian people and my side of politics shouldn’t be so scared of teal voters that it refuses to level with the Australian people and give the Australian people a clear alternative path forward.”

Mr Abbott also said the party needs to stop trying to “out-green” Labor and instead offer “a clear alternative path”.

His remarks come as the Coalition braces for an internal debate over whether to keep or scrap its 2050 net zero target. While moderates within the party argue for retaining it as an aspirational goal, Nationals MPs and other conservatives are calling for it to be abandoned entirely.

Barnaby Joyce announced he will be quitting the Nationals party last week, after months of advocating for the party’s net zero policy to be ditched.

Mr Abbott dismissed the idea of leaving the policy as a mere aspiration, insisting it would continue to trap the party in unworkable political and economic debates.

“The difficulty with keeping an aspiration is that they will constantly be asked how they are going to meet that aspiration,” he said.

“They will constantly be asked about the targets that they might set in government and I think we’ve just got to get right away from that because the whole emissions fixation is in the process of destroying our energy affordability and our energy security.”

The former prime minister warned the impact of net zero would stretch far beyond the energy sector, eventually affecting farms and household costs. He argued the policy was already beginning to “destroy our agricultural exports and change the way Australians live on a daily basis.”