“I think the [climate change] debate has moved beyond whether we’re meeting our existing targets,” the Euroa MP said. “I think the majority of people do want to see greater action, and in rural communities we live at the knife edge of the consequences of climate change. “Many people that I talk to, whether they’re farmers or working across rural industries, are concerned about the cost of inaction.” She said she also wanted greater action from the Commonwealth. Ms Ryan said the federal government’s current climate change policy – using Kyoto carryover credits to meet Australia’s 2030 Paris commitment of reducing missions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels – were not “ambitious enough”.

Asked if she wanted the prime minister to adopt stronger emissions reduction targets, she said: “Yeah. I think there is a valid conversation to be had about whether our current targets are ambitious enough. “I don’t think [our current targets] are ambitious enough. But I do understand concerns from some industries who feel that they will bear all of the pain of change, and that’s why I think we need a constructive, national debate around how we take stronger action,” she said. In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Age, Ms Ryan said she believed that voters in rural and regional Australia who are living at the “knife edge” of climate change want leadership from their politicians on the issue. Her comments put her sharply at odds with her party’s national leader Michael McCormack – who this month described a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 as “not the Australian way” – and his fractious senior colleagues. The federal Nationals are also at odds with their Liberal colleagues, who look increasingly likely to embrace long-term targets.

Ms Ryan said “national leadership” was needed on emissions reduction targets, putting her in lock-step with her Liberal colleagues in Victoria who also want to see “sensible” long-term targets at a federal level. The federal climate change debate has become increasingly fraught in recent weeks, culminating in a challenge for the Nationals’ leadership in early February. Mr McCormack survived that challenge from Barnaby Joyce, whose rhetoric on climate and emissions is even more hardline than the deputy prime minister’s. Barnaby Joyce in Parliament, hours after he lost the leadership challenge on February 4. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen But under pressure to differentiate itself from the Liberals, the federal leader declared the 2050 target unworkable for the Australian economy, while former Resources Minister Matt Canavan said he was prepared to cross the floor if the government considered adopting the “fantastical” target.