Antinuclear

Australian Senate votes against repealing the carbon tax

Senate votes to block carbon tax repeal legislation ABC News By political correspondent Emma Griffiths 20 March 14, The Senate has voted down legislation to axe the carbon tax – a core election promise of Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

After months of debate Labor and the Greens combined to vote against the repeal laws 33 votes to 29 today.Labor, which introduced the carbon pricing scheme in 2012, says the Coalition’s alternative policy to tackle climate change, called Direct Action, will be ineffective and too expensive.

“Without a credible alternative, Labor cannot support the abolition of the existing clean energy policies,” Opposition climate change spokesman Mark Butler said.Greens leader Christine Milne has issued a statement saying the current law, maintaining a price on carbon, must stand.”The Senate has rejected Tony Abbott’s do-nothing approach on global warming and voted to maintain the price on pollution,” she said.

The carbon pricing scheme was brought in by the Gillard Labor government, after extensive negotiations with the Greens, and currently charges polluters about $25 per tonne of carbon emissions……..

Earlier today, the Government had already reintroduced carbon tax-related legislation that could set the stage for a double dissolution election on the issue.The Coalition wants to axe the multi-billion-dollar Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) but the Senate rejected the legislation in December…….

The laws were brought back before Parliament this morning, and if voted down again would give the Government a trigger to call an election of both houses of Parliament……….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-20/senate-votes-to-block-carbon-tax-repeal-legislation/5334020

March 20, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics