Australia already had a national net zeroA target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050. policy architecture, including the Climate Change Act 2022The federal law that put Australia's emissions-reduction targets, including net zero by 2050, into legislation; this bill sought to repeal it. and later climate-related schemes, when Nationals MPs escalated a push in July 2025 to dump the target amid claims it was raising power prices, hurting regional communities and weakening industry. Barnaby Joyce MP responded with a private member’s repeal bill that became a focal point in the CoalitionThe federal political alliance between the Liberal Party and the Nationals, whose internal disagreement over net zero is part of this page's context.’s climate split, before the Nationals and then Liberals moved away from net zeroA target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050. and the bill was later removed from the Notice PaperThe official daily list of business before the House of Representatives; removal from it ended this bill's recorded progress..
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2022
Australia legislates national climate targets
The Climate Change Act 2022The federal law that put Australia's emissions-reduction targets, including net zero by 2050, into legislation; this bill sought to repeal it. put Australia’s emissions-reduction and net zeroA target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050. commitments into national law, creating the central target that the repeal bill later sought to remove.
Repeal Net Zero explanatory memorandum ↗
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23 July 2025
Nationals push to dump net zeroA target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050. begins publicly
SBS reported that a fresh push to abandon Australia’s net zeroA target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050. targets had been launched from within the Nationals while both CoalitionThe federal political alliance between the Liberal Party and the Nationals, whose internal disagreement over net zero is part of this page's context. parties were meeting to settle a new climate policy.
SBS News ↗
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28 July 2025
Barnaby Joyce MP introduces the repeal bill
Barnaby Joyce MP introduced the private member’s bill and argued in his second reading speech that net zeroA target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050. was not changing the climate but was raising costs, damaging manufacturing and dividing regional communities.
Hansard ↗
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25 Aug 2025
Repeal bill becomes a parliamentary focus of the climate split
ABC reported that the bill would be debated in parliament after the Queensland LNP branch voted to scrap its net zero by 2050A target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050. commitment, sharpening pressure on the federal CoalitionThe federal political alliance between the Liberal Party and the Nationals, whose internal disagreement over net zero is part of this page's context.’s climate position.
ABC News ↗
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02 Nov 2025
Nationals formally abandon net zero by 2050A target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050.
ABC reported that the Nationals had formally abandoned the commitment to reach net zeroA target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050. emissions by 2050, with David Littleproud proposing to tie emissions-reduction efforts to the OECDA group of mostly wealthy democracies used here as a benchmark for comparing emissions-reduction efforts. average and focus on adaptation.
ABC News ↗
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14 Nov 2025
Liberals sign off on ditching net zeroA target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050.
ABC reported that Liberal moderates were split after the party signed off on a compromise climate policy that abandoned net zero by 2050A target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050., leaving senior Liberals and Nationals to negotiate a joint CoalitionThe federal political alliance between the Liberal Party and the Nationals, whose internal disagreement over net zero is part of this page's context. position.
ABC News ↗
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30 June 2026
Bill is removed from the Notice PaperThe official daily list of business before the House of Representatives; removal from it ended this bill's recorded progress.
The parliamentary record shows the Repeal Net ZeroA target to balance the greenhouse gases Australia releases with reductions or removals, so overall emissions reach zero by 2050. Bill 2025 was removed from the Notice PaperThe official daily list of business before the House of Representatives; removal from it ended this bill's recorded progress. under standing order 42A House of Representatives rule that can remove business from the Notice Paper when it has not progressed for a set time., ending its recorded progress in the House.
Parliamentary timeline ↗