So why does Michael McCormack hate net zero? Because of the farmers, apparently.

They’re all facing these shysters who come in, these spiffs who come in and ride roughshod over over farmers.

They’re signing up one neighbor and then not the other and often they’re brother and sister. They’re dividing families.

They’re ruining friendships that have been going not for years, but for generations.

I mean, between Binalong and Browning, a great little area, peaceful, idyllic area, putting up 90 260m wind turbines, wind towers.

I mean, nobody should have to live with that right on their doorstep when there’s absolutely no benefit to them. It’s destroying lives. It’s destroying livelihoods. …I’m very much against that. I’m very much worried about the cost of power when we’re getting left behind, and we’ve got the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, wanting to do a productivity forum, and we’re not talking about how we’re going to have cheap energy. I mean, this is a crock. It is an absolute crock..

You know what actually is terrible? Coal-fired power stations.

But the Coalition opposition to wind turbines is not new, or particularly original. In 2014, then-Liberal treasurer Joe Hockey said his eyes were offended by the sight of wind turbines driving into Australia.

We have some beautiful landscapes in Australia, and frankly, putting up those towers is just to me, quite appalling in those places.

I drive from Sydney to Canberra … to go to parliament, and I just look at those wind turbines around Lake George and I am just appalled.

The LNP in Queensland are cancelling renewables projects, even where the community wants them.

So this is not new. It doesn’t matter what the Nationals do here – they will blow up the Coalition and also consign their own party and relevance to the dustbin of history – but they will continue the culture wars to the bitter end.