In a choice between “net zero or bust,” Wide Bay has become the battleground in a row which threatens to disrupt politics across Australia.
A central figure is Federal MP Llew O’Brien, whose Wide Bay electorate borders Hinkler and takes in K’gari, then runs through the Burnett regions in the west to Noosa and the Sunshine Coast south of Peregian.
He has denied following Barnaby Joyce in his stand against the 2050 net zero carbon gas emissions target, but says he agrees with it.
And he has not followed Mr Joyce in announcing a resignation from the National Party, but told a national television audience on Monday night he would “probably have no option” if the party did not ditch net zero.
He did not mention any future with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party.
And despite media talk over the weekend, nor did Mr Joyce. Not publicly at least.
He did indicate that he had recently spoken to Ms Hanson and said he is “free to now consider all options.”.
Significantly for the Wide Bay Burnett region, all participants in the ongoing crisis are from around here or are frequent visitors.
Mr Joyce, a mutual admirer of Mr O’Brien has often called in to support the Wide Bay MP on issues including highway improvements and veterans’ rights.
Ms Hanson, a regular Gympie visitor who says she would welcome Mr Joyce “with open arms,” recently met with supporters in Gympie to form One Nation’s first Wide Bay branch.
And Nationals leader, David Littleproud, whose electorate begins in South Burnett, travelled to Kilkivan in 2023 to join Mr O’Brien in supporting a campaign against big scale renewables, led by Kilkivan shopkeeper Katy McCallum, later a One Nation state candidate.
Mr O’Brien said he believed net zero was unachievable, would make no difference to the world’s climate and went against his principles of “smaller government and freedom of the individual.”
“I am absolutely focused on arriving at the best policy,” he said.
“Parliament needs Barnaby Joyce,” he said. “There’s not too many who can get a message out like Barnaby can.”
Mr Littleproud says his party did not see the crisis coming.
He said he had already voted against net zero in the Nationals party room, as had Mr O’Brien.
Mr Littleproud says he would welcome any change of mind by Mr Joyce and that the estimated $1.3 trillion cost of renewables was too much, not counting other costs, said also to include lost jobs and businesses in a collapsing manufacturing sector.
Another locally linked figure is former Joyce backer, Ron Boswell, who urged Mr Joyce not to align with the “extreme” views of One Nation.
It was the then Senator Boswell who moved the crucial motion for a Senate Inquiry into the Gympie region’s Traveston Crossing Dam, forcing the release of previously secret state government information proving untruths in official claims on the failed dam proposal.
Ms Hanson dismissed Mr Boswell as someone backing his party over the good of the people.
She also rejected claims she wanted Mr Joyce to take over from her as leader, saying she was a long way from retirement and citing other potential leaders as her daughter Lee Hanson and her chief of staff, former Gympie radio announcer James Ashby.
