Injured critic skips Liberal climate expression session

Liberal MPs are meeting in Canberra to thrash out energy and climate policies but one of their most vocal advocates for change is not in the room.

The hotly anticipated gathering of backbenchers and opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan aims to clarify the party's approach to those issues in the wake of its heavy election defeat.

But party insiders have taken great pains to play down the meeting's significance.

Liberal senator Jane Hume, who runs the party's committee on the Australian economy alongside Sydney-based MP Simon Kennedy, said there would not be a formal vote or position decided at the end of the sit-down.

"It's literally about letting people express their opinions in a safe way, in a room where they feel trusted and listened to by their colleagues," she told reporters on h