Australia politics live: Liberal frontbencher admits Coalition ‘down in the dumps’ but backs Ley; Littleproud rejects ‘puerile’ net zero argument

8.56pm GMT ‘We want to get it right,’ says Tehan on Liberal energy policy Shadow energy minister, Dan Tehan, who’s leading the Liberal party’s energy policy review, is facing more pressure now that the Nats have come out of the gate and staked their position by abandoning net zero. Tehan, following Littleproud on RN Breakfast, says everything is AOK with the Nats and that he’ll take his time to “get it right” on energy policy. We’ve got to get it right in understanding: OK, what is it that we need to do to make affordable energy our number one priority, but at the same time be doing our bit when it comes to reducing emissions? And we’re working through that methodically. We’ve been doing it not only as a Liberal party but also jointly with the National party – very constructively, I might add – and we’ll continue to do that. So when will the Liberals announce their policy? Tehan says: “in a perfect world, it would be great to have it done by Christmas”. Including this week, there are just two joint sitting weeks left this year, so time is certainly ticking. Updated at 8.58pm GMT 8.50pm GMT David Littleproud says Australia shouldn’t be ‘streaking ahead’ on emissions reduction Nationals leader David Littleproud says Australia shouldn’t be a “laggard” on emissions reduction, but we also shouldn’t be “streaking ahead”. Talking to ABC RN Breakfast this morning after making the announcement yesterday, Littleproud says Australia should be doing its “fair share”. But what’s a fair share, asks host Sally Sara, when Australia’s per capita emissions are three times the global average? Littleproud says: I think this is where the reality of getting to this per capita is a puerile argument. The reality is each country has a responsibility, and this is where they get into things like Scope 3 [emissions], saying Australia should have to pay for that because we actually export a lot of resources overseas that are then burned … It shouldn’t be just about what we actually are emitting, it’s what we can mitigate. He points to Australia accounting for 1% of global emissions, and says it’s a “small amount of the total emissions globally”. Updated at 8.55pm GMT 8.44pm GMT ‘Australians aren’t happy with us’, says Coalition frontbencher Facing Nationals flying ahead of the Liberals on energy and a brutal Newspoll result this morning, Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh is asked on Sky News how worried she is about the declining public support. “I don’t want to spin it,” she says, but digs in on net zero, saying many in her community don’t want it. Australians aren’t happy with us. We lost an election, and we were annihilated at the election. We need to get our act together. We need to focus on being a strong opposition. On whether Sussan Ley can and should stay on as leader, she says: Sussan still has my confidence, and she should be able to stay on as leader. As I said, we’re down in the dumps. It’s not just about the leadership, it’s the whole Coalition and the people that are left – my colleagues, they’re wonderful, talented people, and we should be giving Sussan a chance. Updated at 8.46pm GMT 8.32pm GMT Hanson-Young says Coalition ‘just not serious about government’ Staying on Sarah Hanson-Young on ABC News Breakfast, the Greens senator did not hold back in slamming the Nationals over their decision to scrap support for net zero, accusing the Coalition of having “delusional and dangerous” climate policy. She calls on Labor to “rule out” working with the Coalition on any environment or climate policy (ie the government should negotiate with the Greens on the EPBC bill). The Coalition have proved themselves to be a party that’s just not serious about government. You can’t pretend in Australia that you care about the future of our country, the safety and security of Australia. You can’t even pretend that you care about the bush and the regions if you don’t have a credible policy on climate change. The climate crisis is already here. Reminds me of Logan Roy telling his children in Succession – “you are not serious people”. Updated at 8.37pm GMT 8.24pm GMT SingTel should appear before Optus inquiry, Greens and Coalition say The Greens and the Coalition will grill Optus over its outage earlier this year during a parliamentary hearing. Shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, told ABC News Breakfast a bit earlier that the inquiry would “get to the bottom” of what happened. When I met with the CEO of Optus he said it was human error and I asked ‘How can human error result in the outage where lives were lost?’ That is not good enough. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who’s also been heavily critical of Optus, also told News Breakfast the inquiry will be looking to call in the CEO and board members of SingTel to face questions. I’ve been worried for far too long that Optus is much more worried about its profits than it is people’s safety. And now we have a situation where people have died because Optus put profits ahead of safety, and SingTel needs to take responsibility for that. Updated at 8.27pm GMT 8.14pm GMT ‘I have a lot more to ask,’ Barnaby Joyce says on Nationals’ energy policy Barnaby Joyce isn’t completely sold on the Nationals’ energy policy despite being one of the most vocal advocates to scrap net zero (and still has a bill in the House to do that). On Sunrise this morning, Joyce says he still has concerns over the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) which underwrites renewable projects. The Nats have decided that they’ll keep the scheme but will expand it to also underwrite fossil fuel projects. Joyce says he will go through the fine print with senator Matt Canavan, who led the Nationals review with Ross Cadell. I have a lot more to ask and I will do my job and ask. Few in the Liberal party, who have been staunch net zero supporters, are concerned this could be the end for the Coalition. Asked whether the Coalition is “over”, Joyce says: I don’t know, that is above my pay grade. In the past, I’ve argued against splitting the Coalition. Updated at 8.50pm GMT 8.11pm GMT A third of metropolitan and regional GPs to be fully bulk-billing Just one third of all metropolitan GP practices will be fully bulk-billed under the government’s increased bulk-billing incentive, which came into effect on 1 November, as the government has promised that there will be no out-of-pocket payment for 90% of all GP visits by 2030. Labor has released new data overnight showing how many clinics have indicated they will now fully bulk-bill. In metro areas, of 4,720 practices, 1,557 will be fully bulk-billing (33%) - an increase of 622 clinics that say they will now bulk-bill due to the incentive. In regional centres, of 620 practices, 209 will be fully bulk-billing (33%) - an increase of 108 clinics. But in remote communities, almost half of all practices will now be fully bulk-billed - with 51 out of 110 practices indicating they won’t charge out-of-pocket costs for patients. The top ten electorates that will see the most number of mixed billing practices become fully bulk-billed include: Labor-held Ballarat in regional Victoria; Labor-held Rankin in outer suburban Brisbane; LNP-held Hinkler and Flynn in regional QLD; Labor-held Hawke outside Melbourne; Labor-held Calwell and Hotham in metropolitan Melbourne; LNP-held Spence in South Australia, LNP-held Parkes in regional NSW, and LNP-held Cowper in regional Victoria. Updated at 8.31pm GMT 8.10pm GMT Welcome Good morning, Krishani Dhanji with you here for another busy sitting week (and the second last joint sitting week for the year). The Liberals are facing some pressure after the Nationals came out and scrapped their commitment to net zero. The Liberals are still considering their position on the policy. The government is keeping somewhat of a lower profile early this week; they’re still spruiking their pre-election promise to increase bulk-billing incentives which came into force over the weekend. And the Optus boss will face a parliamentary hearing today into the September outage. The Greens and Coalition have been pushing for a full inquiry into the incident. It’s going to be another busy week, stay with us!