The text message from a Liberal MP landed at about 20 minutes to 5pm, nearly five hours after the start of a Liberal Party room meeting that looked for all the world like a leadership challenge, not a debate about policy.

Debate had run in favour of axing net zero , and as the message said: “it is done for”.

Later, an MP said 17 Liberals had spoken in favour of keeping a commitment to net zero by 2050, 28 MPs spoke in favour of dumping support for net zero and the views of four speakers were not clear.

The details of what exactly that means for the Liberals are also unclear, with yet another meeting of Liberal ministers on Thursday to flesh out the details.

But it is clear that net zero by 2050 is dead and buried as a Liberal policy.

It really didn’t need to come to this.

The ima

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