Victorian Liberals' Long Suicide Note Written in Green

Since when does a centre right political party win office by proposing policies even further to the left than its centre left opponent?

And yet that’s what the Victorian Liberals are seeking to do.

In a desperate bid to remain in opposition, State Liberal leader Matthew Guy on Sunday announced an emissions reduction target even more radical than the federal government’s.

Anything to give a snowflake a chance in hell.

Rather than defending civil rights (trampled by Daniel Andrews government during the first wave of Covid) or fighting for cheap power (non existent because of the Daniel Andrews government’s love affair with weather dependent energy) the state opposition leader has vowed to halve emissions by 2030.

The Andrews government already has a 50 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030, but its interim target has not been legislated. Matthew Guy has promised to write the target into law.

How will he reduce emissions by half without destroying the economy? He will use some as yet to be invented technology that is even less likely than a Liberal election victory.

What difference will he make to world temperatures? None. Zero. Nil. Nadir.

Why a did he propose a 50 percent reduction? It’s a big number guaranteed to win over the climate catastrophists. Except it won’t. Climate bed wetters don’t vote Liberal. And Liberal voters aren’t climate Chicken Little’s.

Fifty percent emissions reduction? Fifty percent vote reduction more like it.

If Matthew Guy is seriously worried about climate change and energy prices then he would advocate for continued use of coal while - and until - nuclear power stations are built. That’s an actual plan, and something that Liberal voters could get behind.

But simply announcing a 50 percent cut in emissions as a kind of climate me too policy is a classic case of appealing to voters who will never vote for him with ideas that have never been thought through, all the while alienating his base.

Can anyone recall how the green dream worked for the Western Australian state Liberal Party at the last election?

The election is not until November. Matthew Guy’s emissions reduction policy is a long suicide note.