Antinuclear

An Abbott government’s climate policy not likely to pass in the Senate

Frontier Economics has proposed an intensity-based emissions trading scheme imposed initially only on electricity generators – but Tony Abbott has ruled out any form of carbon price or “tax”

Opposition to Abbott’s key policies raises possibility of double dissolution Lenore Taylor, political editor theguardian.com, Tuesday 27 August 2013

Climate plan and paid parental leave scheme may be blocked in Senate if Coalition wins election Tony Abbott’s central policies, including the “direct action” climate plan and his paid parental leave scheme, are likely to face major problems in the upper house whichever way the unpredictable Senate ballot falls on 7 September, leaving open the possibility of a double dissolution election.

If the Coalition wins government, as all major polls are predicting, it is unlikely to win control of the Senate in its own right.

Abbott would prefer to deal with a Senate where the balance of power was held by a collection of right-of-centre independents, rather than the Greens, and this has been widely regarded as a workable result for the Coalition.

But even if this is the outcome of the Senate election, with the possible election of a rightwing “micro-party” candidate in NSW, a Katter’sAustralia Party candidate in Queensland and the re-election of independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon to join the sitting Victorian DLP Senator John Madigan, Abbott’s “signature” policies are not assured.

Xenophon has made it clear he will not support the $3.2bn direct action scheme as it stands and will propose amendments to transform it into a carbon pricing scheme similar to the one proposed by modelling from Frontier Economics and considered by then coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull in 2009.

“I would want to see significant modifications to direct action to make it more efficient economically and environmentally before I could vote for it,” Xenophon told Guardian Australia. “At the moment it is clunky and inefficient and not the best way forward.”

Madigan is also “extremely sceptical about direct action and whether it will actually deliver any gains”. He said: “I’m looking at the Frontier model that Nick [Xenophon] has shown me.”

And both Xenophon and Madigan are also unimpressed with Abbott’s $5.5bn paid parental leave plan……..

Abbott avoided specifically answering a question on Tuesday about whether or not he would go to a double dissolution election if his “signature policies” such as direct action and paid parental leave were blocked, but predicted that any party that defied his mandate to implement his “landmark reforms” would be “swept away by the tide of history”.

He has promised an immediate double dissolution election if the Senate blocks the repeal of the carbon tax………

With hundreds of candidates and complex preference deals, the result of the Senate election is impossible to predict. But to win a majority in its own right the Coalition would need to win four out of six available Senate seats in at least three states – something most analysts consider unlikely.

The Greens are defending Senate seats in Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia, with senator Sarah Hanson Young in South Australia facing an uphill battle to retain her seat………

Frontier Economics has proposed an intensity-based emissions trading scheme imposed initially only on electricity generators – but Tony Abbott has ruled out any form of carbon price or “tax”. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/27/senate-climate-change-direct-action-paid-parental-leave

August 28, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized