Abbott begins his destructive action against climate change action

Abbott government begins process to repeal carbon tax; says pressure on Labor to honour mandate ABC News, By chief political correspondent Emma Griffiths 9 Sep 2013, The Coalition is already piling pressure on the Labor Party to “honour” the new government’s mandate to repeal the carbon tax.

Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott yesterday instructed his department to begin drawing up the legislation to dump the carbon pricing scheme, and says Federal Parliament will resume in late October or early November to deal with it……. Mr Abbott’s spokesman – and likely minister – for the environment, Greg Hunt, says scrapping the carbon tax will be new government’s “first order of business”……..However, both Labor and the Greens have indicated they will not support moves to dump the carbon pricing scheme, nor will they support the Coalition’s direct action scheme to address climate change.

Senior Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen says his party’s stance is clear. “The Labor Party believes that climate change is real,” he said.”The Labor Party believes that we need to do something about it. The Labor Party believes that a market mechanism is the best way to do that, and we won’t be walking away from those beliefs.”

Labor’s opposition to the moves, would leave the bills deadlocked in the Senate and could trigger a double dissolution election – an option Mr Abbott has said is on the table. The alternative would be to wait until the newly elected senators take their seats next July, though that would mean negotiating with a disparate group including South Australian senator Nick Xenophon and, potentially, two senators from the Palmer United Party and one from the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party…….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-09/abbott-carbon-tax/4945330