Re: ‘Turn our back’ on net zero?

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Dear Mr Littleproud and Ms Ley,

First, Ms Ley, Sarah Henderson is reported to be urging you to back out of Net Zero.

Others in your party echo her. Ignore them. This is not just a policy backflip. This is an abdication of elected responsibility. Do you have any idea at all of what this means to our children? As parents and grandparents, on behalf of all Australians, we urge you to reconsider.

David, you have already run up the white flag. Ms Ley, you are widely tipped to cave in, too.

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Why? First, this is a betrayal of the trust invested in you as Members of Parliament. And it is a betrayal of the broader Australian community that entrusted you with stewardship of its future.

The world is burning. Australia is already on the front line:

• Bushfires that blacken skies and choke cities
• Floods that sweep away homes, destroy livelihoods, and become uninsurable
• Heatwaves that kill the elderly and the vulnerable in their thousands
• Bleached reefs and collapsing ecosystems that once defined our national identity
• Entire communities in the Torres Strait losing land, culture, and heritage to rising seas

And yet, instead of facing this reality, you retreat into the comfort of mining lobby talking points. Energy bills? You argue that we cannot afford to act, when the truth is we cannot afford not to.

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What You Actually Did

The specificity matters, so let me be precise.

Five months ago, Mr Littleproud, you re-committed to net zero following the Coalition’s brief split. You stood before the nation and said: we are committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

On Sunday, November 2nd, 2025, your party room voted unanimously to abandon that very commitment. You told the press gallery:

“Our party room has got to a unanimous position of scrapping net zero commitments by 2050.”

Five months. Not five years. Not a genuine policy reconsideration based on new evidence. Five months, and you’ve reversed course completely. Five months to say no future. It beggars belief.

You attempt to justify this by claiming net zero has “become about trying to achieve the impossible, rather than doing what’s sensible.” You said the commitment was “ideology that has already torn apart our industrial base.”

But here’s what you didn’t say: nothing has changed scientifically in those five months. The climate hasn’t become less urgent. The science hasn’t been disproved. What changed was the pressure from the mining lobby and the political calculation that abandoning net zero would be easier than defending it.

• Net Zero is not “impossible” — it is happening, here and abroad.
• Net Zero is not “ideology” — it is science, economics, and survival.
• Net Zero has not “torn apart” our industrial base — it is the only way to rebuild it for the 21st century.

The real impossibility is pretending Australia can prosper in a world that has moved on. The real ideology is sacrificing the nation’s future to appease a handful of mining companies.

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Ms Ley, you have been even more evasive. You remain engaged in “convivial conversation” with Mr Littleproud “about next steps in the process.” You speak of “two mature parties developing something” while refusing to commit to anything publicly. You attend party conferences and refuse to address the net zero question at all.

When asked about energy policy, you replace any specific commitment to net zero with vague language about “delivering a stable, reliable grid that delivers affordable energy and Australia playing its role in reducing global emissions, responsibly as we should.”

Notice the retreat? From a hard target to wishy-washy sentiment. From “we will reach net zero by 2050” to “we will play our role responsibly.” The latter commits you to nothing.

You are not leading. You are waiting to see which way the wind blows. And the wind, Ms Ley, is coming from the mining companies.

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The Charges

Charge 1: Abdication of Responsibility

You were elected to serve the people of Australia, not the boardrooms of multinational, foreign-owned mining companies. By abandoning net zero, you have walked away from your most basic duty: to protect the nation from foreseeable harm.

A bushfire season. A flood event. A heatwave. These are no longer hypothetical. They are happening now. And every delay in decarbonisation locks in more of them.

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Charge 2: Betrayal of Trust

Australians entrusted you with stewardship of their future. Instead, you folded when the mining companies applied pressure. You chose the comfort of preserved donations and access over the safety of your constituents.

You betrayed not only voters, but the very idea of public service; the idea that those elected to parliament serve the public interest, not private profit.

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Charge 3: Failure of Duty of Care

Every tonne of carbon you excuse is another burden on children and grandchildren. What will you tell them?

That when the fires raged across their schools? You argued it was too expensive to act.

That when the seas rose and swallowed their grandparents’ homes? You said we needed to be “sensible” first.

That when the insurance companies abandoned coastal regions as uninsurable? You were having “convivial conversations” about “next steps in the process.”

You are drawing cheques on an ever-dwindling viable future account. And you are asking the young to cover the overdraft.

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Charge 4: Collusion with Vested Interests

Mr Littleproud, your justification relied on research from the Page Research Centre; a right-leaning think-tank, rather than on CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, or peer-reviewed climate science. The Page Centre claims energy bills have risen $600-$800 per household. What it doesn’t mention: renewable costs have plummeted 90% in a decade. What it doesn’t mention: transmission grid investment would be necessary regardless. What it doesn’t mention: the mining industry benefits enormously from energy price volatility and fossil fuel dependence.

Ms Ley, your refusal to lead is itself a form of collusion. By remaining silent and “engaged in convivial conversation,” you allow the mining lobby to set the agenda unopposed.

You have allowed yourselves to be captured by the stratagems of the fossil fuel lobby. You parrot their distractions, their alarmist myths about energy affordability, while ignoring the real alarm; the sirens of fire trucks, the evacuation orders, the funerals of heatwave victims.

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The Consequences of Your Failure

By reneging on net zero, you are not just delaying action. You are locking in catastrophe:

• 6.3 billion tonnes of additional emissions over the next 25 years; the equivalent of 3.2 billion cars on the road for a year
• 1.5 million Australians at risk of coastal flooding by 2050; more people than live in Melbourne, will lose their homes, their insurance will become worthless, their property values will collapse. They will become climate refugees in their own country.
• By 2090, that rises to 3 million
• A 190% increase in heat-related deaths in Sydney alone; that’s not an abstraction, those are real people in real homes, unable to afford air conditioning, unable to escape the heat
• Entire communities in the Torres Strait are already being erased by rising seas. Their culture, their heritage, their history, gone.
• Hundreds of billions in economic losses as homes become uninsurable, crops fail, disaster recovery costs spiral, and insurance companies abandon entire regions.

This is not abstract. It is not tomorrow’s problem. It is happening now. And your delay makes it worse.

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The Reality You Refuse to Face

You treat net zero, the issue of our very survival, as if it were a debating point. Something to skip. Something to spin. Something you imagine will win over voters if you posture against it.

But the atmosphere does not care about your talking points. The climate does not wait for your polling. The ocean does not negotiate.

Mr Littleproud, you claim net zero has “become about trying to achieve the impossible.” But what you actually mean is: it has become politically difficult. You mean: the mining companies have told us to abandon it. You mean: I’ve read my party room correctly and they’re no longer willing to defend climate action.

That’s not impossible. It’s a cop-out. That’s cowardice disguised as pragmatism.

Ms Ley, your “convivial conversation” and “mature parties” language is evasion. And your electorate, your nation deserves more respect. You are not leading your party. You are waiting for someone else to decide, so you can blame them for the outcome.

That’s not pragmatism. That’s abdication. The words mature parties add ironic insult to injury.

Meanwhile the world is on fire. Every tonne of carbon is another match thrown on the fire. Every year of delay is another betrayal of the people you swore to serve. People you now patronise.

And betray. This is not mature leadership. It is capitulation to foreign-owned mining companies.

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Elders as Conscience

Unlike you, we; the elders of this nation, know there is no time to lose. We have lived long enough to see the patterns. We have watched the climate worsen. We have witnessed the denials, the delays, the compromises that came too late.

Silence here will taken as consent. We can no longer remain silent on your fatal error.

We understand the stakes. We recognise when leaders have abandoned their posts.

You have effectively renounced your credibility and moral authority as leaders. Therefore, we resolve to set ourselves up as your conscience:

• The voice that tells you when you are doing the right thing and when you are not
• The reminder that delay is fatal
• The witness who will not let you forget that every day of inaction is another betrayal of the young
• The accountability mechanism you have abandoned for yourselves

We promise to actively remind you, in every way we can, that the clock is ticking. We will not be silent. We will not accept your euphemisms. Platitudes. We will not forgive your evasions.

We will remind you that history does not forgive those who knew better and did nothing.

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The Call

When do we want Real Zero? Ten years ago.

When is the next best time? Tomorrow.

Not in 2050. Not after another decade of “consultation.” Not after another round of focus groups and think-tank reports from captured institutions.

You still have a platform. You still have a voice. You still have the ability to lead.

Use it. Now.

Stop parroting the energy cost arguments of the mining companies. Start telling Australians the truth: that renewable energy is cheaper, cleaner, and more secure than fossil fuels. That the only thing standing between Australia and a rapid decarbonisation is political will.

Stop hiding behind “convivial conversations” and “mature party negotiations.” Start making actual decisions. Start defending climate action. Start telling your own parties that science trumps polling.

You can still act. You can still lead. You can still be on the right side of history.

Or you can continue this path. You can continue to dodge, evade, compromise, and retreat. You can continue to prioritise mining industry comfort over climate action. You can continue to betray the young.

But know this: we are watching. We are remembering. We are many. And we will ensure that neither you nor your party forgets this moment when you chose the mining companies’ comfort over your nation’s future.

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How Will You Live With Yourself?

Mr Littleproud, when the next bushfire season arrives and communities are evacuated, will you remember that you had the power to act and chose not to? Will you stand in a fire-ravaged town and explain to a widow that you needed the mining companies’ support more than you needed to protect her home?

Ms Ley, when the power bills don’t fall; because net zero wasn’t the cause of rising energy costs, and your abandonment of it won’t fix them; what will you say to voters who trusted you? That you were too weak to lead? That you prioritised internal party management over their future?

History will not forgive delay. Our children will not forgive you. And we—the witnesses to your abdication, will ensure that neither of you forgets this moment.

The choice is still yours. Act now, or live forever knowing you didn’t.

Yours sincerely,

David Tyler, on behalf of the parents and grandparents of Australia and all the children.

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