Sabra Lane: For his analysis, I was joined earlier by the ABC's National Political Lead and host of Insiders, David Speers. David, what's your sense of what will come out of today's meeting?
David Speers: Sabra, I think there's a few things we can predict safely, and that is that the Liberal Party room will broadly agree on dumping the net zero target by 2050 as a legislated target attached to that 2050 date. They will want to prioritise lowering power prices over emissions reduction, and they will broadly want to stay in the Paris Agreement. There will be disagreement, though, over whether there will be any form of commitment or aspiration or mention of those words net zero being achieved in the second half of the century. So, that's where the fault line lies. There won't be a resolution of these things today. Today is about Liberal MPs voicing their views. Tomorrow is when the Liberal shadow cabinet members will meet to try and settle a position, and only then, it seems, will Susan Lee as the Leader state her own position.
Sabra Lane: What about the possible ramifications for the Coalition and its electoral chances?
David Speers: Well, for the Coalition, as a team between the Liberals and Nationals, this has been an enormous test and difficulty. The Nationals really did gazump the Liberals by getting in early with their position to abandon net zero, and that's put enormous pressure on the Liberals. So, the Liberals clearly are being pushed by that position, and if they reach a position that matches what the Nationals have done, fine, but if they don't, there will have to be further negotiations beyond tomorrow, so over Friday and Saturday, and then Coalition members will meet on Sunday afternoon to try and finalise a position. So, it's still unclear whether that landing point can be achieved, or whether this could threaten further tensions and potentially even a split within the Coalition, although I think that seems unlikely at this point.
Sabra Lane: What about Sussan Ley's leadership? Her key supporters, Moderates, have said that they'll quit shadow cabinet if net zero is dropped. What is the degree of difficulty for her today?
David Speers: Well, this is, Sabra, without question, the biggest test Susan Lee has faced in a relatively short time in the leadership, only six months, and she has adopted an approach here of not wanting to state her position, take a stand, lead this debate. She has really stepped back, keen to draw a contrast to the captain's call approach of Peter Dutton on various things, and leave this to her colleagues to thoroughly debate and thrash out. The risk in doing that, however, has meant that she has looked like she's not in control of this, that she has not looked like she's led this debate, and we're now at a point where some of her own colleagues are saying, we need leadership on this. So, it has come at a cost to her, but ultimately, this is the approach she wanted to take to give her colleagues the chance to have their own say and reach their own position, and then she will adopt that position. Look, it seems unlikely there will be any move against her today. The players on both the conservative and moderate side are talking that down. However, in this sort of volatile and uncertain climate, as you know, Sabra, anything can happen. I think more likely, though, is they get through this week. It's messy. They limp through to the end of the year, and then those leadership questions will arise early next year. But there's no doubt Susan Lee has been damaged by all of this.
Sabra Lane: The ABC's David Speers, then.