Transcript - ABC News Breakfast - 12 November 2025

Melissa McIntosh MP 
Shadow Minister for Communications 
Shadow Minister for Women 
Federal Member for Lindsay 

12 November 2025 

Transcript 

ABC News Breakfast with James Glenday

Topics: Net zero; Liberal Party; leadership.

E&EO … 

James Glenday

Melissa, welcome back to the program.

Melissa McIntosh

Thanks for having me on. Good morning.

Glenday

I just want to ask, first of all, a very generic question about this party room meeting. There's lots of different views. What's it going to be like inside there? Is it going to be a bit heated? Are you going to end up walking away from this meeting with people leaving the front bench no matter what happens?

McIntosh

I think it's a very important party room meeting for the Liberal Party. It's our chance to come together after speaking with our communities, and I've certainly been speaking with mine for many weeks now and they've been telling me they're struggling so much under high power prices under the Albanese Labor Government.

I surveyed my community, over 1,600 people came back, 65% of people do not support net zero by 2050, 89% are suffering under higher energy prices saying it is impacting their living standards. So, I'll be walking into that party room armed with my community's wishes for me to express how much they are suffering, how much they want our country to be going in a different direction. And I'm sure many other colleagues will be doing the same and I'm really looking forward to it.

Glenday

We might get to power prices in a moment, but I just wonder, just your own personal reflections, if the party today says, actually no, we're going to keep net zero in some form, would you resign the front bench?

McIntosh

No, I think the best position to be in is a position where you can fight hard for the Australian people, and I know that my community is representative of middle Australia, where people are working hard to get ahead, they have aspiration, but they're just getting killed. It is literally survival in the suburbs right now. So, I think I'm best placed to be on the front bench. But I'll  certainly be prosecuting my case very strongly in that party room today.

Glenday

Labor, which has the majority of seats, of course, around the country by a substantial margin, rejects what you say about the survival in the suburbs. But I'm just going to put that to one side, just on net zero and exactly how this is going to work. If you abandon net zero, would you also then be advocating for your party to remove itself from the Paris Agreement and remove Australia from the Paris Climate Agreement if you do get back into government?

McIntosh

We aren't anti-environment, we're pro-reality and I think it's important for us to play our role as a nation when it comes to reducing emissions and it comes to looking after our environment. So, I'm seeing Paris Agreement very differently to this net zero by 2050, which is putting so much pressure, a renewables-only approach to get somewhere so fast - Labor Party’s going deeper, it’s going harder, it’s going faster.

Glenday

Sorry to jump in there, Melissa. I just - I mean, so you would be, you'd be advocating, yes, Australia should stay in the Paris Climate Agreement …

McIntosh

Yes.

Glenday

Okay, if you stay in the Paris Climate Agreement, how are you then going to be putting downward pressure on power prices? Because if you look at where investment's going, particularly private investment, a lot of it's going into, you know, wind, solar, renewables, things like that, as well as storage at the moment. It's not heading into coal power, for instance. Would you be proposing government subsidised coal power stations?

McIntosh

We need to have a pragmatic energy policy that’s short term, medium term and long term. In the long term I think we should be looking at nuclear as an option. We want to power, you know, AI and have data centres here in Australia where we can protect our own data that needs power; it's currently on the grid and it's putting stress on our energy system.

In the shorter to medium term, we should be putting more gas into the system. Manufacturers across Western Sydney tell me they could put all the solar panels in the world on their roofs. They need gas to power heavy industry which produces steel in this country for our defence industry. It's about sovereign capability. And of course we should be, you know, ensuring that our coal fired power stations can live out their life and produce baseload power while we are transitioning.

And renewables do play a part - you know, 50% of my community have solar panels on their roofs, but they just can't afford the battery, so only 14%. They want to do the right thing. This is not about saying we don't care about the climate, we don't care about the environment, but we do care about people's energy bills.

Affordability of energy is number one, the number one issue in my community. So, we need to find a way, a different way to the Labor Party who is not meeting its energy emissions targets, not meeting its housing targets, not bringing down energy prices for everyday Australians. So that's what this is about.

Glenday

Your Sydney based colleague Andrew Bragg says that if the Liberal Party was to walk away from net zero and if Australia was to walk away from net zero, it would put Australia among the baddies of the world. Others in the Liberal Party have pointed out that if you walk away from climate action, you might end up facing as a country higher tariffs, things like that. Is that a risk? Is there a risk that if you walk away from this in the longer term, Australians are worse off and have to pay more.

McIntosh

Well, I don't think our friends, the United States are baddies and when it comes to tariffs, that's where it is at the moment. And I don't want to put words into Senator Bragg's mouth, but I think he was more talking about the Paris Agreement.

I think we're going to settle today, and I hope if it's not today, over the next couple of days on a position where our party is going to be satisfied. I am a Coalitionist. I think The Nationals have done some really good, decent work, research to get to their position. And I'm not saying we follow The Nationals, but I sit next to David Littleproud in Question Time. I’m, you know - I have a close relationship with him. I have a close relationship with other National Party colleagues like Anne Webster, where we've been prosecuting against the Albanese Labor Government on the Triple Zero outage. When we are together, we are a strong Opposition and that's where I'd like to see us stay.

Glenday

How do you think Sussan Ley is doing as leader of the Liberal Party? And do you think you would make a better leader?

McIntosh

Two separate questions. On Sussan, I think she's doing what she promised to do. She promised to be consulting her colleagues. She set up this process. We have all known it is going to be a process. Dan Tehan was appointed the Shadow Minister for Energy and he's been holding workshops. Everyone's had their say. So, I will …

Glenday

Is it going well under her? Is it going well?

McIntosh

I have always backed our leader and I'm not going to shift away from backing Sussan. Of course, right now we are in a complex situation where we need to land a position on a very important issue. Let's do that and reassess where we're going after that.

Glenday

If there is a spill within the next six months to a year, and there is an enormous amount of speculation that there will be, will you be putting up your hand to lead the Liberal Party?

McIntosh

I think it would be the greatest honour to lead the Liberal Party and indeed our nation at some stage. I love our country. I'm passionate about our people and I want them to have a better life for them and their families. So, one day in the future I would be very, very honoured. But that day is not today.

Glenday

Is it very far away, though?

McIntosh

I'm focused on getting through the net zero issue and being a strong Opposition. I think that's so important for us across all Australia needs us to do that and then get into government, be a Cabinet Minister, and then maybe one day.

Glenday

Melissa McIntosh, thank you very much for your time this morning.

McIntosh

Thank you.