The Emissions Trading Scheme (or as it is know in Canberra the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme) is currently before the Senate after being approved for a second time by the House of Representatives. The pressure is squarely on the Opposition and in particular Malcolm Turnbull to pass the Bill. The Government is also applying the blow torch by telling the public that the opposition will have more than enough time to debate the issue internally and decide on their position while also delay any possible deal until Tuesday. The Government have certainly being playing the politics right with help of course from the fractured opposition.
The Opposition have their leader in favour of it and "asserting his authority as leader" or at least trying to. Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals are oppose to it regardless. Nick Minchin, the third highest ranking Liberal, is on the Joyce bandwagon and doesn't really believe in Climate Change. Tony Abbot was originally for the Bill but for purely political reasons (i.e. to avoid a double dissolution election) but now he appears to have changed that position.
On Tuesday the Liberal/National party room will decide whether to support the Bill (in amended form) or oppose it and face a double dissolution election. Will they oppose it or will they come out the other side spruiking that they saved the country from the Rudd Government's failed scheme. Many in the coalition, Tony Abbot is one, believe that this Bill should not be passed until after Copenhagen. I personally believe that the Coalition will make the politically correct move and pass the Bill. The majority do not have the courage of their convictions to oppose the Bill on philosophical grounds.
Only time will tell.
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