Nationals win extra cabinet position as they sign up to net zero deal

By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Resources Minister Keith Pitt is set to be elevated to cabinet under a deal between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce that sees the Nationals sign up to the 2050 net-zero target.

Pitt, who was demoted to the outer ministry by Joyce, has been one of the toughest critics of a rush to embrace the 2050 target, and a very strong advocate of the coal industry’s future.

Under the deal, the Nationals cabinet numbers would go from four to five although their overall frontbench numbers stay the same. Asked whether he’d put up the proposal of an extra…

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