Coalition backbenchers fear Australia could be forced to end the diesel fuel rebate if Malcolm Turnbull signs up to a proposed statement on phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.
The prime minister has arrived in Paris for UN-led climate talks but has restated his support for the emissions reduction targets adopted by his predecessor, Tony Abbott.
Several Coalition MPs have raised concerns he could be pressed to sign a separate communique, promoted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, backing “accelerated action” to eliminate inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies.
Miners and farmers can access credits for tax included in the price of fuel for equipment and heavy vehicles used for business purposes.
The former industry minister Ian Macfarlane raised the issue at a Coalition backbench policy committee meeting in Canberra on Monday. Coalition MPs were seeking more information about the implications of signing the communique.
“If at some point in the future, an international agency or body such as the IMF [International Monetary Fund] define the diesel fuel rebate as a subsidy, not a rebate, we’ll then find ourselves in a position where we’re being asked to honour a commitment we signed in 2015, which ipso facto means we will be under pressure to end the diesel fuel rebate,” Macfarlane told Guardian Australia.
“That would be met with complete dismay from anyone who represents farmers and regional Australia.”
The agriculture minister and deputy leader of the Nationals, Barnaby Joyce, was understood to be asking questions within the government about the issue. He would oppose the abolition of the diesel fuel rebate.
The deputy prime minister and leader of the Nationals, Warren Truss, said: “Nothing that comes out of Paris will affect or have any impact on the diesel fuel rebate.”
George Christensen, a Liberal National party MP based in regional Queensland, said signing the proposed communique would be “madness”. He wrote on Twitter that the proposal would affect coal mining jobs in north Queensland and “give greens ammo to attack coal further”.
This communique, if signed, will cost coal mining jobs. For sake of NQ jobs, I oppose this #cop21 #COP21Paris @cop21 pic.twitter.com/LA12ZNkEFG
— George Christensen (@GChristensenMP) November 30, 2015
The Queensland LNP senator Matt Canavan said the diesel fuel rebate was not a subsidy and the government should not sign any overseas agreement that suggested its removal. “Removing it would kill farming,” he said on Twitter.
The Australian Conservation Foundation said the issue loomed as an early test for Turnbull at the Paris climate talks.
Matthew Rose, an economist at the foundation, said the fuel tax credit scheme would “cost Australians a staggering $26bn over the next four years” and the government should “stop subsidising big polluters to pollute”.
“The diesel rebate is notorious because it means while Australian motorists pay 38 cents in tax on every litre of fuel they buy, some of the world’s biggest mining companies, like Glencore Xstrata, BHP Billiton, Peabody, Rio Tinto and Anglo American, pay not a single cent in tax for the diesel they use in their mining operations,” Rose said.
The unrest over the fate of the diesel fuel rebate highlights the sensitivities within government ranks about the prime minister potentially adopting more ambitious commitments to tackle climate change.
Ministers played down the prospect of changes to the government’s policy, after the Australian reported the prime minister would hold open the prospect of increasing the greenhouse emissions reduction target in rolling five-year reviews.
The foreign affairs minister and deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, said the government would not renegotiate the target – 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030 – at the Paris conference. That target had been approved by the cabinet and the Coalition party room, she added.
Bishop said Turnbull was “not changing government policy” but was referring to the existing plan to look at using international permits in 2017.
“It is also government policy to consider reviews for all countries, all countries that sign on to reducing greenhouse gas emissions reductions in five years’ time,” she told parliament on Monday.
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, said Turnbull was “taking forward the position that the government had agreed many, many months ago – actually before he became prime minister”.
“I spoke to him this morning, actually, and there is no change to the policy that had been previously agreed,” Morrison told 2GB.
The leader of the Greens, Richard Di Natale, said Turnbull was “in grave danger of being one of those politicians who says one thing and does another”.
