Sunrise host Nat Barr has confronted Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie over the eye-watering taxpayer cost of a Liberal Party net zero meeting, with the political gathering reportedly exceeding $100,000 in expenses.
Hefty Price Tag for Climate Talks
The controversial meeting has drawn sharp criticism after revelations that flights for Parliamentarians alone cost nearly $100,000, with an additional $22,540 for one night of travel allowances. These figures don't include flights for support staff, pushing the total cost even higher.
The Liberals are preparing to debate their contentious net zero policy, a discussion that threatens to destabilise both Sussan Ley's leadership and the Coalition partnership with the Nationals, who have already abandoned the policy.
Sunrise Showdown Over Meeting Costs
During Wednesday's heated Sunrise segment, Barr questioned why the meeting couldn't have been scheduled during regular parliamentary sessions. "What the Liberal Party is discussing is essential policy for them," McKenzie defended, while shifting focus to Labor's climate approach.
"The reality is when we look at what taxpayers are footing the bill for, it's their trillion-dollar renewable only emissions policy from the Labor Party," McKenzie argued. "We are subsidising consumers bills, subsidising manufacturing jobs, subsidising foreign-owned renewable companies for the rollout for a trillion-dollar transition."
Barr pressed the Senator on the specific expenses: "But don't they fly business? Don't they get $300-a-night to stay there? Aren't there dozens of them? Could they not have picked any other day when they were in Canberra automatically?"
Broader Political Implications
McKenzie maintained that such meetings are "part of doing your job as a Parliamentarian," noting that both Labor and Liberal parties have held out-of-session meetings previously. She emphasised that the cost of the meeting "will pale in significance to the subsidies that are being given right now."
Labor Minister Clare O'Neil offered a starkly different perspective, lambasting the meeting's expense and doubting its effectiveness. "I think if I have any level of confidence this meeting in Canberra today would resolve this issue with the Liberals, it would be absolutely worth it," O'Neil stated. "That is totally not going to happen."
O'Neil criticised the Coalition's decade-long "chaos and infighting over the issue of climate change and energy," noting that "the only result for you at home is that you're paying higher power bills as a consequence."
The political clash underscores the deepening divisions within the Coalition over climate policy, with significant taxpayer funds being spent amid ongoing energy policy uncertainty affecting Australian households and businesses.
