The NSW Nationals have scrapped Net Zero. What does that mean for the Coalition's fractured climate divide?

Ask an old-school National — one who goes back to when it was still the Country Party — and they might tell you the modern-day Nationals care more about coal than cattle.

The Coalition was smashed at the 2025 federal election, partly for failing to take climate change seriously. The Liberals bore the brunt of the damage, losing to Teals and Labor, while the Nationals mostly held their seats — with a number by razor-thin margins.

Now, a widening rift inside the conservative bloc is opening up — and it blew wide open over the weekend.

While the Liberal Party is still trying to figure out its position on climate and energy, a vocal part of the National Party just made its position clear: it wants to ditch Australia’s net zero by 2050 target altogether.

At a party conference in Coffs Harbour, the NSW Nationals voted to abandon the goal — despite it being official Coalition policy.

This doesn’t change National party policy yet, but it sends a clear message: a serious fight over climate is coming, and Nationals leader David Littleproud will be under pressure to respond.

This is not what the Liberal Party — and deputy leader Sussan Ley — wanted to hear.

A public return to the days of climate denial, led by figures like Tony Abbott, could wreck any attempt at rebuilding support in suburban seats.

Some NSW Nats claimed there’s “no clear path” to net zero — which isn’t true — and that the U.S. has dropped it. Their logic: if the U.S. is backing out, why shouldn’t we?

The optics? Pretty bad. It risks making the Coalition look completely out of touch.

Which brings us back to the original question: do the Nationals actually represent farmers anymore?

This is a country increasingly defined by drought, fire and flood. Rural Australia is on the frontline of climate impacts — from scorched paddocks and drowned livestock to roads, bridges and houses that are washed away. 

So why are the Nationals fighting action on climate when their base is the one bearing the brunt?

“20 years ago, I would have accepted a politician saying, ‘I don't understand climate change’,” Peter Holding, a third-generation wheat and sheep farmer in Harden, NSW, told the National Account. “I don't accept that argument anymore.

“If you're out there denying that climate change is happening and you're not trying to do anything about it, and you're still promoting the use of coal and fossil fuels, you know what you're doing.

“You've just taken the money and decided that you think you can live comfortably in your little bunker or whatever you're going to live in, and everybody else can go to hell.”

The conservative parties will soon need to draw a line in the sand: where do they really stand on climate?

The Nationals are being pulled to the right by the One Nation vote, the Liberals are trying to service conservatives and the centre at the same time — and no one seems to know how it ends.