Australian carbon plan hits political roadblock
Australia's landmark carbon trade scheme, being watched around the world in the lead up to global climate talks in December, hit a political roadblock yesterday when Parliament delayed a vote on the plan until August. The decision by the upper house...
Australia's landmark carbon trade scheme, being watched around the world in the lead up to global climate talks in December, hit a political roadblock yesterday when Parliament delayed a vote on the plan until August.
The decision by the upper house Senate scuttled government hopes of passing its carbon trade laws in this parliamentary session, prolonging uncertainty for major polluters and the stalled carbon trade market.
It also confuses Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's options for an early election if the Senate continues to frustrate his legislative agenda, and makes it unlikely he will call an early election this year despite his lead in opinion polls.
"It is clear the government wants this Bill brought to a vote. We have been frustrated and prevented from doing that as a result of the games we have been seeing in the Senate this week," Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told reporters.
The carbon trade scheme, which will cover around 1,000 of Australia's biggest polluters, is the central plank of Mr Rudd's plan to curb carbon emissions and fight global warming and was a key promise from his November 2007 election victory.
The government wants carbon trading to start in July 2011, forcing business to pay to pollute, and wants the scheme locked in before global talks in Copenhagen, which will consider a post Kyoto protocol framework to curb Greenhouse gas emissions.
The Senate will vote on the package of 11 bills on August 13, but is ultimately expected to reject the plan in its current form, with the government stuggelling to find the extra seven votes it needs to push the laws through the upper house.
The conservative opposition wants to delay a final decision on the carbon trade scheme until after the Copenhagen talks, and until US actions to fight climate change are known. If laws are rejected or delayed twice by the Senate, with an interval of three months between votes, the government can call an early double-dissolution election to clear the political deadlock.