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Liberal Party

Opinion

Liberals squander energy on net zero: Voters aren’t listening

Parnell Palme McGuinness Columnist and communications adviser November 9, 2025 — 5.00am

Before the age of formalised focus groups and regular opinion polling, the Enlightenment Irish philosopher and politician Edmund Burke delivered a bracingly anti-populist statement to his electors : “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”

The most generous interpretation of the Coalition’s ongoing debate over Australia’s commitment to net zero by 2050 is that the remaining representatives of Liberal and Nationals-held electorates are trying to live up to the ambition of the great I

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