Newly preselected Canberra Liberals Senate candidate Nick Tyrrell has called for an end to his party's internal divisions over climate policy, declaring he wants nothing more than for the Liberal Party to stop talking about itself.
The electric vehicle-driving businessman made his comments as Liberal MPs and senators spent five hours debating whether to dump the party's commitment to Australia's current emissions reduction target on Wednesday.
Balancing Climate Action and Cost of Living
Mr Tyrrell, who was preselected over the weekend, acknowledged that reducing emissions was the necessary direction for Australia, but stressed that voters' concerns about energy prices could not be ignored.
We've got to take the community along for the journey, he told The Canberra Times. Surveys and national polls show that support is wavering, and you don't want it to crash.
The candidate is seeking to win back the ACT Senate seat lost by former Liberal senator Zed Seselja to independent David Pocock in 2022. After years of divisions at both branch and national levels, he wants the Liberal Party to move toward an eventual return to government.
The Net Zero Debate and Practical Solutions
Mr Tyrrell said the party needed to provide a credible alternative to the Albanese government's climate plan that avoided both extreme approaches - neither embracing a far-right position of building more coal-fired power stations nor being rigid about emissions reduction targets.
I think it's important that we have reasonable targets, he said ahead of the Liberal Party's decision on net zero by 2050. If we don't have practical ways of getting there for the whole country, then you end up becoming the old man shouting at clouds.
The candidate supported having ongoing conversations about whether Australia reaching net zero by 2050 was achievable or affordable, describing this as the right conversation to have.
Nuclear Energy and ACT Voter Concerns
Mr Tyrrell backs removing the moratorium on nuclear energy and believes Australia has failed to make significant progress in reducing emissions despite multi-billion dollar investments in renewables.
I think the easy stuff is done, the hard stuff is ahead of us, and we need to take the community along for the ride, he said.
When asked about appealing to ACT voters who consider environmental issues a top priority, he acknowledged Canberra is a little bit different to the rest of the country but dismissed suggestions that the Coalition's climate wars would prevent a Canberra Liberals presence in the Senate.
He pointed to recent Resolve Political Monitor polling showing cost of living as a top voter concern, arguing that we're going to get the balance right, or there's the potential that we lose the social license for the project.
A final Liberal Party policy on climate is expected to be announced after Opposition Leader Sussan Ley's shadow cabinet meets on Thursday, with the matter going to the joint Coalition party room on Sunday.
