In her book Plots and Prayers, Niki Savva writes about a Coalition cabinet meeting that took place just before Malcolm Turnbull’s overthrow in 2018. When discussion turned to the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) – Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg’s bid to cut emissions while keeping energy affordable – Christopher Pyne argued: “We can keep dragging our bloodied stump across the political firmament, leaving a trail of gore behind us, or we can cut our losses and move on [from the NEG].”

The Liberal Party’s choice of Scott Morrison to replace Turnbull and his subsequent election victory might have been seen as vindication for Pyne’s view, except that the bleeding and the losses continued.

Then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and then-treasurer Scott Morrison during a press conference in Brisbane in 2016.Credit: Andrew Meares

Voters in urban Liberal heartlands, unconvinced by Morrison’s approach to climate change, turned to teal independents, turfing out Frydenberg and other moderate Liberals.

That Morrison and his deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, had eventually committed the Coalition to a policy of net zero emissions by........

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