Liberal Senator Alex Antic put up a defiant Twitter post on the weekend.

It consisted of the words ‘Net Zero’ with an aggressive red cross through the middle.

Love it. So did everyone else.

‘Today the governing body of the South Australian Liberal Party voted to call upon the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party to rescind their policy of Net Zero by 2050. It’s time to scrap Net Zero and save Australia!’

So far, the responses have been great.

The Hon. Gary Hardgrave wrote, ‘The emperor has no clothes: finally, it’s been said.’

NSW Libertarian MLC John Ruddick added, ‘Senator Antic has the balls and brains to be a great Prime Minister. He can be … once the Liberal Party membership is given a vote on [the] leader.’

Senator Matt Canavan said: ‘The South Australia Liberal Party had dropped their support for Net Zero. The momentum to drop Net Zero and focus on the Australian economy again is gathering steam.’

Matthew Camenzuli, who faced off against Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen in the federal election, said: ‘Let’s go! Somebody has to give Australia a voice. When both major parties offer the same things, democracy is broken. It is why independents and minor parties are growing in popularity.’

Keep in mind, Antic dropped this carpet bomb over the weekend so we probably won’t see any mainstream rage articles or bitter mutterings from the wets until normal working hours resume.

Senator Antic decided pretty much immediately that Net Zero was a load of crock damaging the country. It’s one of the reasons he is so popular. Another is that he is able to articulate his position, including on his own podcast of which there are currently 34 episodes.

Net Zero is not the only idea damaging the party. Antic has mentioned in previous interviews that trying to out-spend Labor harmed the Liberal Party’s reputation as responsible keepers of the Treasury, while refusing to fight the Culture Wars has allowed the Left to dominate the future direction of policy.

On that note, it has never been explained why most of the Liberals back away from the Culture Wars.

Why is talking about culture a problem?

The Left have an entire industry built around Indigenous culture. Do the Liberals think this is pointless?

Politics is a formalisation of rules based on culture. Their entire job is a negotiation over cultural norms.

Which makes me wonder… Is their reluctance to engage with cultural ideas on the public battlefield because they’re worried people will notice both sides are wearing the same colours?

Something to consider.

Antic is not the only defiant one speaking sense. Andrew Hastie told Four Corners that Net Zero is a ‘straitjacket’ which he is getting out of and then tossed in some awkward questions about the way Australia is happy to sell its fossil fuels to other nations, but refuses to use them to make domestic power prices cheaper.

There is also a self-proclaimed movement of Dark Nats helping spread the word, although I am not entirely clear on whether the Dark Nats are social media fans or free-range Senators.

Senator Matt Canavan wrote on Twitter:

I don’t need to be leader to change the party or the country. Thank you Dark Nats for your incredible energy! We have changed things for the better this week. But many fights still ahead.

He also said shortly after the May election, ‘At least we’ll have some bloody fun if we argue for things we believe in. Courage is contagious. There is something about having fun … and I have had a lot of fun in the last five days arguing for what I believe in and with all these … we call them Dark Nats … the Dark Nats groups online creating all this wonderful content.’

Plenty of Liberals and Nationals don’t want to have the Net Zero debate, with some going so far as to call it ‘dangerous’.

It’s more likely they are worried they won’t be able to win the Net Zero argument if someone wanders in with a folder full of facts.

The one thing we know is that Liberal Leader Sussan Ley and Nationals Leader David Littleproud have put the loudest, most talented people on the back bench and given them a reason to go off and grind axes. Once those are sharpened, Net Zero will be the first thing on the chopping block.

What happens to the modern party when its favourite idea is murdered by Cabinet outsiders?

I have no idea, but it sounds more interesting than the Woke garbage on Netflix.