This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, faces a fresh internal row over climate change policy, with MPs clashing over the issue in the first Coalition party room meeting of the year.

After Morrison declared at the National Press Club last week that the government needed to focus on “practical” climate change action with a focus on mitigation and resilience, MPs debated how the government should reposition its policy response.

The debate followed a spill in the Nationals partyroom on Tuesday morning in which former leader Barnaby Joyce failed to topple Michael McCormack after arguing the government should do more to support coal-fired power and warning the party was at risk of losing its voice within the Coalition.

In the party room meeting, Joyce also argued against “reactionary” climate policies in response to the bushfire crisis, accusing people of using the tragedy to push the “hobby horse” of climate action. He was backed by NSW National MP David Gillespie who suggested the party’s constituents did not want more action on climate policy, and it was not an issue being raised by voters.

Michael McCormack sees off Barnaby Joyce in National party leadership spill Read more

But several MPs spoke in favour of more ambitious climate action. The Liberal MP for the seat of Higgins, Katie Allen, expressed support for the “ultimate ambition of carbon neutrality” and an embrace of renewable technology to achieve that goal.

Allen’s call for more action was backed by the North Sydney MP Trent Zimmerman, the member for Reid, Fiona Martin, and the Goldstein MP, Tim Wilson, who all supported the embrace of new renewable technologies to cut emissions.

Sources say Wilson and Zimmerman also spoke in favour of nuclear power, commending MP Ted O’Brien for his parliamentary inquiry into the issue, which was tabled in December, and advocating for it to be further explored.

Zimmerman spoke about the need to do more to address voter concern in seats such as his, pointing to the loss of the Liberal-held seat of Warringah to independent Zali Steggall at the election to highlight the strength of feeling on the issue.

He is understood to have argued that the Coalition was not just a coalition of parties, but a coalition of seats with divergent views on the vexed policy matter, and that these different views needed to be respected.

In response, the Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen argued his colleagues were sounding like the Greens, and the government was only in power because it won seats in Queensland based on its support for the coal sector and for its support for a new coal-fired power station in the state. This claim was rejected by some MPs.

But Christensen’s view was also expressed by Matt Canavan, who addressed the party room after resigning his position from cabinet, telling colleagues the party had become the party for workers.

“We have become the party of workers, workers in coalmines, workers in shipyards and workers in factories,” Canavan said. “We represent those people by fighting for their jobs, and defending their jobs.”

Canavan is now calling for new coal-fired power stations to be built across the country.

In an earlier meeting of just Liberal MPs, Queenslander Andrew Laming slapped down colleagues for publicly denying the science of climate change, saying it was akin to doubting “the science of the planes you fly on” coming to Canberra.

He argued that while the party’s MPs should debate the policy response, it was an “impossible position” to be debating science that already underpinned the government’s emission reduction targets.

The NSW senator Jim Molan was criticised for saying on ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night that climate change may not be caused by humans and declaring he was “not relying on evidence” for his climate position.

Conservative Craig Kelly also came under fire for telling the BBC there was no link between Australia’s bushfire crisis and climate change.

Speaking after Tuesday’s meeting, Wilson argued that most MPs agreed with Morrison that the government needed to “evolve” its policies to create the jobs of the 21st century.

“We are progressively going to be cutting emissions over the cycle, and that is where most MPs are, which is taking a pragmatic, sensible approach that takes the whole of the Australian community with us,” Wilson told the ABC.

Matt Canavan quits cabinet to back Barnaby Joyce for National party leadership Read more

Addressing the party room, Morrison urged both the Nationals and Liberals to work together, saying the Coalition had a strong track record of delivering for Australians.

“We come to this joint Coalition party room to do things together,” Morrison said.

Morrison faces a difficult task to reposition the Coalition on climate change after assuring voters that it wanted to “evolve” its policies and do more to reduce emissions.

In January the issue was also discussed in cabinet, where Morrison’s senior ministers agreed not to bolster the government’s current emissions reduction target of 26-28% of 2005 levels by 2030.

Speaking in parliament on Tuesday on the government’s response to the summer bushfires, Morrison said there was a need to “heed the lessons” of a natural disaster of such magnitude.

“These fires have been fuelled by one of the worst droughts on record, changing in our climate and a build-up in fuel amongst other factors,” he said.

“Our summers are getting longer, drier and hotter, that’s what climate change does, and that requires a new responsiveness, resilience and a reinvigorated focus on adaptation.”