The shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, has contradicted fellow frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon, declaring Labor cannot support the Coalition’s 2030 emissions reduction target because it flies in the face of the Paris agreement.
Mr Fitzgibbon, who is Labor’s resources spokesman, suffered a significant swing against him in his coal-mining seat in the Hunter Valley in the May election.
He used a speech on Wednesday at the Sydney Institute to argue the ALP should offer “a political and policy settlement” on climate policy “to make 28% the target by 2030”.
The opposition went to the federal election this year with a 45 per cent carbon emissions reduction target, while the Liberals set a 26-28 per cent reduction goal.
Mr Fitzgibbon said the government would be forced to act if the two parties were in agreement on a carbon reduction goal.
“The Prime Minister has largely avoided scrutiny and accountability on this subject because all the focus has been on Labor’s more ambitious targets,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
If there was policy certainty, investment confidence in the energy sector would return and power prices would drop.
“Labor needs to reach a sensible settlement on climate change. How many times are we going to let it kill us? Indeed, how many leaders do we want to lose to it,” Mr Fitzgibbon argued.
A less ambitious target would allow Labor to be “more ambitious on the road to 2050”.
He also reflected on party’s election loss, saying Labor “confused and scared” the electorate and underestimated Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Labor also opened itself up to a scare campaign with its economic policies, Mr Fitzgibbon said.
“Scott Morrison’s main cut-through message throughout the election campaign, and since, has been a promise to keep things just as they are,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
“And in the midst of Labor’s busy and confusing messaging, it worked.”
Labor’s “path to success” at the next federal election in 2022 would not be “a track to the right, but back to the sensible centre”.
-with AAP
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