By Editor,Max Aitchison
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Jim Chalmers’ delivers a brutal message to critics of net zero: ‘Cookers and crackpots’
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By MAX AITCHISON, POLITICAL REPORTER, AUSTRALIA
Published: 00:43 BST, 18 September 2025 | Updated: 00:47 BST, 18 September 2025
Jim Chalmers has been accused of being insecure after he described critics of net zero as ‘cookers and crackpots’.
The Treasurer laid into Opposition Leader Sussan Ley at a press conference in Brisbane on Wednesday after she delivered a major economic speech calling for Australia to wean itself away from government dependency.
Chalmers claimed that abandoning the target of net zero emissions by 2050 – currently the subject of fierce debate within the Coalition – would have terrible economic and environmental consequences.
‘The Liberal Party is run now by this weird collection of cookers and crackpots and nowhere is that more obvious than when it comes to net zero,’ Chalmers told reporters.
He then turned his aim on Ley’s speech, where she called on more means testing in the welfare system and caps on the NDIS.
‘The speech that Sussan Ley is giving today is the exact same speech that Joe Hockey gave before the Liberals last came after pensions and Medicare when they were last in office,’ he claimed.
He added: ‘Their party is run by cookers and crackpots and I think they are the real audience of Sussan Ley’s speech today.’
However, Opposition Finance Spokesperson James Paterson has accused Chalmers of being ‘insecure’ over his leadership ambitions.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers (pictured with his wife Laura) laid into Opposition Leader Sussan Ley at a press conference in Brisbane on Wednesday after she delivered a major economic speech calling for Australia to wean itself away from government dependency.
He then turned his aim on Sussan Ley’s (pictured) first major economic speech on Thursday, where she called on more means testing in the welfare system and caps on the NDIS
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‘I think it shows that Jim Chalmers is an insecure Treasurer, and it is probably because he’s in a battle with people like (Home Affairs Minister) Tony Burke for succession planning after Anthony Albanese,’ Paterson told Sky News.
‘He must be worried that Tony Burke is gaining internal authority and position at his expense so he’s trying to make a hero of himself with outlandish comments like these, but it’s just not a serious contribution to a public policy discussion.
‘All Sussan Ley was talking about yesterday was that we need to have prudent fiscal management. We need to have budget rules that discipline government spending.’
Ley’s speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia on Wednesday sought to articulate the Opposition’s economic vision, pitching themselves as a more prudent manager of the nation’s finances than Labor.
‘I will make the case that we must move from a time of dependency to empowerment,’ she said.
‘By “dependency””, I mean the growing expectation that government will provide for every need and solve every problem by spending more.
‘This mindset, supercharged in recent years, weakens both our finances and our national character
‘My message is that we must put guard rails around government spending, not as an end in itself, but so that we can strengthen our economy, preserve our capacity to help those truly in need, and ensure the next generation inherits opportunity, not debt.’
Opposition infighting has reignited in recent days after Western Australian MP Andrew Hastie (pictured), seen by some as a future leader, said he’d move to the backbench if the coalition stuck to its policy of net zero emissions by 2050
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Ley also sought to take the heat out of the debate around the net zero commitment within her own party, which saw Liberal Andrew Hastie threaten to resign from the frontbench over the issue earlier this week.
‘We will not have net zero at any cost because the cost can be too high,’ she said.
‘And right now, it looks like the cost is too high when you consider what this government is about to do with its Paris targets.
‘I’ll hold that conversation until they actually make their announcement.’
Following its massive election defeat in May, the coalition is conducting a wide-ranging review which includes scrutiny of its energy policy.
It comes as the Albanese government is set to unveil its 2035 emissions reduction target on Thursday.
The climate policy will first need to be signed off by cabinet, with a meeting of the government’s senior ministers to take place in Sydney beforehand.
Treasury has modelled an emissions reduction cut between 65 -75 per cent, put forward by the Climate Change Authority.
But the Albanese government has been called on by environmental groups to set a target of no less than 80 per cent.
The Australian Conservation Foundation said a target that high would ‘give Australians and our environment the best chance of holding global warming at the safest levels now possible’.
Business groups on the other hand stand at the opposite end of the spectrum, warning a target higher than 70 per cent would risk more than $150 billion in exports and send companies offshore.
Under the Paris Agreement, signed a decade ago, members must increase their emissions targets every five years and cannot water them down.
Nations that signed up must submit their new targets by the end of this month.
Australia has legislated a 43 per cent emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2030.
The Paris agreement, which Australia and 195 other parties adopted in 2015, aims to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C and less than 2C.
BrisbaneAnthony AlbaneseJim Chalmers
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Jim Chalmers’ delivers a brutal message to critics of net zero: ‘Cookers and crackpots’
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