Former leader says it might take losing the seat to get the party to do something on climate

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The former Liberal leader John Hewson has called on voters in his former seat of Wentworth to use the byelection as a referendum on climate change and vote against the Liberals.

He suggested it might take “a drubbing” in the byelection on 20 October to force the party he once led to respond to “the urgent challenge” of climate change, and that Liberal voters should consider voting for others before returning to vote Liberal at a general election in six months’ time.

“The community has a unique opportunity now, with a byelection just months before a general election, they could register a substantial protest vote against the government or any other candidates that don’t understand the magnitude and urgency of the climate change challenge,” he told Guardian Australia.

“If the Liberal party doesn’t stand up and argue the case on this, I think people should be encouraged to vote against them.

“Is it going to take a drubbing in a byelection to get them to do something on climate?” he asked.

Hewson led the Liberal party from 1990 to 1994 and has been scathing of the party’s failure to address climate change.

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The Liberal party’s failure to map out a clear path to achieving the 2030 emissions reduction targets in the Paris agreement was “grossly irresponsible” and amounted to shunting the problem to the next generation, Hewson said.

“They think they can just leave it to 2029 but it requires a very large change in the way we do things,” he said.

“I get a lot of shit on this, but I am an Australian first and a member of the Liberal party second,” he said.

“If I disagree with a Liberal party policy I do my level best to get it changed. It doesn’t mean I am not a Liberal. But to put their head in the sand on this issue – they just fobbed the IPCC report off, like it doesn’t matter – it’s a pretty unsatisfactory position.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released this week warned that the world has only 12 years to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5C or face dire outcomes.

Hewson said the Liberal candidate, Dave Sharma, was “a good candidate” but should be permitted to express some views.

“If he has a view he should be able to say he would work within the party, and that would probably get him across the line,” he said.

Hewson will join the Adani campaigner and former businessman Geoff Cousins and a coral expert, professor Terry Hughes, at a climate change forum in Bondi on Wednesday night as green groups warn that Wentworth would be markedly hotter and 9% drier by 2050.

According to modelling produced for environmental groups campaigning to make climate change the central issue in the byelection, Wentworth faces a future where winter resembles summer temperatures and summer becomes even more extreme.

The modelling, which will be used in a social media campaign, is done by the Australian National University using data from the Queensland Department of Environment and Science’s Long Paddock project, which is used to predict climate change impacts in regions and cities.

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It was commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation and is one of a series to be used in the next federal election.

The “climate coasters” – visual representations of how the climate will change in key electorates – show the seasonal temperatures now and how they will change by 2050 under the IPCC’s high emissions scenario. This assumes that greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow at the current rate and do not moderate before 2050.

The modelling for Wentworth shows that by 2050 the average daily maximum temperatures will be 3C hotter than the historic average (compared to 1960-1990 baseline); there will be twice as many days over 30C; and there will be an average of eight days above 35C.

“If we allow runaway climate pollution to continue, Wentworth would keep getting hotter and drier,” the ACF climate change and clean energy program manager, Gavan McFadzean, said.

“Summer conditions would take over much of the year and more frequent extreme temperatures would put increased pressure on the health of its more vulnerable residents,” he said.

Climate change policy is one of the top issues in the byelection, with candidates aiming to capitalise on the Coalition’s dumping of its proposed national energy guarantee just ahead of dumping the former member for Wentworth and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Turnbull had championed the policy as the way of dealing simultaneously with climate change, energy prices and security of supply, but met with strong resistance from some within his own party.

The Coalition has now reverted to the Abbott-era emissions reduction fund as its main policy and is investigating options to prolong the life of coal-fired power plants.

High-profile independent Kerryn Phelps has released a six-point plan to tackle climate change and has pledged that if elected she will use her position to push towards 50% renewable energy by 2030.

Labor’s Tim Murray is arguing that Labor is the only major party with a comprehensive policy to deal with climate change, and that after the next election it will have the ability to legislate it. Labor is promising to have 50% clean energy by 2030.

Several of the other independents and minor parties are also putting forward their plans to tackle climate change.