Australian right-wing politicians surprisingly may vote against Abbott’s “Direct Action” climate policy

Direct action could fail even without Palmer United Party April 26, 2014 Lisa Cox , 26 April 14 National political reporterTony Abbott’s “direct action” climate change policy is almost certain not to pass the Senate in its present form – even if the Palmer United Party were to change its position and vote for the plan.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon said on Friday that he would not vote for the Coalition’s policy unless there were substantial changes, including measures to ensure companies comply with the scheme.

Fellow crossbench senator John Madigan, of the Democratic Labour Party, said he doubted whether the government was committed to the policy.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt on Thursday unveiled key details of the centrepiece of direct action, an emissions reduction fund, and declared the government would ”easily” reach an emissions reduction target of a 5 per cent cut below 2000 levels by 2020.

Senator Xenophon said he was not convinced by the white paper, which proposes a $2.55 billion fund to pay polluters to cut their emissions. Companies would bid for funding through a reverse auction process run by the Clean Energy Regulator……..

Senator Madigan said he was concerned some companies that had spent years switching to more efficient methods of production would not benefit, and questioned how committed the government was to its own plan. He said the Coalition had four years to develop a policy, but the white paper was just “a diatribe of words” that left too many questions unanswered.

“Is this fair dinkum? I just don’t know,” he said.

Other crossbench senators-elect Bob Day, of Family First, and David Leyonhjelm, of the Liberal Democratic Party, have indicated they would not support the policy.

It means that even if the four Senate votes aligned with Clive Palmer were to support the scheme, it would fail while Labor and the Greens are

opposed……..http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/direct-action-could-fail-even-without-palmer-united-party-20140425-zqzmd.html

April 26, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics

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