During the last parliament I negotiated an amendment to the Climate Change Act to lock in Australia’s carbon emissions target as a floor – not a ceiling.

I did it to promote government ambition to exceed the target and, having covered the first Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement, to provide a legislative buffer against backsliding by a future Australian government.

Only a party that had no intention of achieving net zero by 2050 would talk about repealing this legislation.

And I certainly wasn’t expecting it to become so contested so quickly, but we live in times where populist policy trumps people.

The Clinton era line of “it’s the economy, stupid” takes on new meaning now that cost-of-living worries are being used to sell incoherent policy to a stressed population via manipulated information.

And in this post-truth environment, fossil fuel interests are winning the hearts and minds of voters.

Those of us who laugh at the political dysfunction within the Coalition over this may live to regret our hubris. Because while the Nationals wag the Liberal party dog, the Labor party is failing to sell its own policies to the nation, and the rest of us who care about effective climate policy are being drowned out.

What’s amazing is that the Nationals – with less than 4% of the vote at the last federal election – have been able to get away with prosecuting such a fact-free, yet influential case that’s now dictating Liberal party policy and, to some degree, public sentiment.

Take Senator Bridget McKenzie opining without challenge on ABC Radio Melbourne last week that renewable energy and climate policy are economically negative........

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