This time it was about a staged policy shift, with an emphasis on the staging. The Nationals had to have their moment. They had to have an agonising process so their regional voters would see Joyce gaining concessions from Morrison. And they had to slow it down so the diehards – Matt Canavan, George Christensen and others – could reluctantly accept net zero was going to happen.
“We are making sure we’re not grandstanding,” Joyce told the ABC last Friday. “It’s not a pantomime.” But the entire exercise was the dictionary definition of grandstanding. And a lot of it was pantomime.
A lot, but not all. The cost of this political game was real. The net zero target will be set. But Joyce stopped Morrison making a formal pledge to make deeper cuts to emissions by 2030. He did this even though the Prime Minister was within reach of a stronger 2030 target after months of pressure from United States President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The other costs are yet to be counted. The policy package to support the new target will be outlined this week. Only then will it be possible to measure the concessions offered to the Nationals. Only then will it be possible to see whether the government has the policy ideas to meet the target.
The net zero pledge is a defining moment. Morrison has dragged the Nationals towards accepting the need for a significant target. But the real test is the action, not the promise.
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Net zero pledge a defining moment, but the real test is action
Source: Philippines Alive
