Scott Morrison says Matt Canavan's net zero anger is 'no news' but Michelle Landry tells colleague to 'pull his head in'

Scott Morrison has dismissed anger among Nationals over emissions reduction as he moves to head off more climate wars within the Coalition.

But standing alongside the Prime Minister in Rockhampton on Wednesday, a Nationals MP has told her rogue colleague to "pull his head in" as climate divisions threaten stability in the Coalition.

Senator Canavan on Tuesday enflamed tensions in the Nationals over net zero, describing the target, agreed to by the junior coalition partner in October, as "dead" and "all over bar the shouting".

Mr Morrison accepted debate over climate action had been "very difficult for our side of politics", but insisted fractious negotiations last year had put an end to the matter.

"Everybody knows that Matt hasn't been supportive of that position. There's no news there," he said.

"We did the hard yards to get everyone together. Of course, there'll be some who disagreed with it at the time, and I suspect they still will.

"But that doesn't change the government's policy."

Nationals MP Michelle Landry, who holds the resource-rich Queensland seat of Capricornia, stressed a host of farming and mining companies were working towards the target.

"Pull your head in, Matt," she said.

Labor treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers described the Coalition as "hopelessly split" on net zero, accusing it of offering different answers in inner-city and regional seats.

"It's one of the central issues of this election campaign, and the governing party seeking re-election to get another term cannot get story straight on net zero by mid-century," he said.

Mr Morrison insisted he and Senator Canavan were in lockstep over Labor's "sneaky carbon tax" through its reliance on the safeguard mechanism.

The safeguard mechanism system was implemented by the Coalition in 2013, and already applied to more than 200 sites.

"Once again, the government has been lying about the safeguard mechanism to try and distract from the diabolical dysfunction and division that we are seeing," Mr Chalmers said.

"The government is a joke when it comes to climate change."

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The Business Council of Australia also moved to damp down the Coalition's attack, stressing the safeguard mechanism was already in place.

"Alongside a suite of other measures to reduce emissions, with careful consultation with industry we believe it is the right incentive to drive investment, deliver more jobs and meet our net-zero commitments," it said in a statement.

"The concrete, bipartisan commitment to net-zero emissions was a critical step towards giving businesses the certainty they need to make investments, create new jobs, keep Australia an energy superpower and deliver affordable, reliable and secure energy."

Earlier, former Nationals leader Michael McCormack on Wednesday agreed Senator Canavan should "pull his head in" over the comments, insisting the junior coalition partner would stick to its word

"When country people make a deal, a deal is a deal is a deal," he told ABC radio.

"That's what we agreed to ... We shook hands on that. That's what the Nationals said we would do, and so that's what we will do."

In October, the Coalition struck a deal for net zero emissions by 2050 after marathon talks before the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow.

The junior coalition partner's blessing was only given after concessions from the Liberals, which have not been spelled out in public.

Mr Morrison derided electric vehicles during the 2019 campaign, and labelled Labor's 45 per cent midterm emissions reduction target as "economy wrecking".

But he reversed his position amid political pressure following the Black Summer bushfires, and with the majority of Australia's allies already moving beyond the target.