Labor bickers over call to drop emissions target

The Labor Party is at war over climate change policy, with frontbencher Mark Butler moving to shut down speculation it will abandon ambitious emissions targets and reach a “political settlement” with the Liberal Party.

Labor ran a “doomsday” advertisement at the last f
ederal election, which opened with the words “climate
change” before running images of natural disasters
including bushfires, floods and cyclones. 

Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon is calling for the ALP’s target of a 45 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 to be slashed down to the Liberal’s own target of 28 per cent. Labor has previously claimed Australia cannot meet the Paris Agreement commitments on that trajectory.

Mr Fitzgibbon blindsided the party with the speech outside of his portfolio area, warning that Bill Shorten’s ambitious plans had left voters “scared and confused”.

“Labor needs to reach a sensible settlement on climate change. How many times are we going to let it kill us?” he said.

Read the story from The New Daily by Samantha Maiden - “Labor bickers over call to drop emissions target.”

(I weep - Robert McLean)