ETS countdown amidst Opposition disunity

22 November 2009 | 10:12:12 AM | Source: AAP, SBS Staff

turnbull_hockey_fists_091008_B_aap_2024326398

Joe Hockey has said he doesn't think any opponents of Malcolm Turnbull's ETS stance will need to be sacked. (AAP)

Labor's is again turning up the heat on the coaltion, saying that their internal bickering is jeopardising a deal on the emissions trading scheme.

The latest attack comes from Greg Combet, the Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change.

He says there's been a lot of progress in the talks between the government and the opposition, but disunity in the coalition remains a complicating factor.

"Time is now ticking by, we're getting very close to the deadline," Combet said.

The pressure is on to settle an agreement by next Thursday, before parliament rises for the summer break.

Mr Combet's comments yesterday came on the heels of Friday's reports that Liberal frontbencher Tony Abbott appears to no longer support a deal with the government, which some commentators have put down to a move to wrest Liberal leadership from Malcolm Turnbull.

2

Comments | Add yours

Libs deny need for sackings

Reports on Saturday suggested Mr Turnbull would sack frontbenchers who didn't back the party's policy and vote in favour of an amended ETS.

For his part, Turnbull remains hopeful. "I am confident that if I recommend a deal, it will win the support of the shadow cabinet and the partyroom," he told The Australian newspaper.

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said he did not believe there would be any sackings.

"People have crossed the floor in the Liberal Party before. That is the entitlement of people," Mr Hockey told ABC Radio.

"But it's also meant to be a team, and shadow ministry is a team.

"There are well established processes that everyone is familiar with, and if people try and redefine those processes it's only because they're not getting their way."


 

top

Your Comments

22 Nov 2009 16:05 AEST

Rod Capper

From: Cairns

Mr

When the media is willing to spend some time putting both sides of the ETS story p[erhaps articles like this will start to become relevant. Is it not time that the media started questioning the goverment rather than forever blasting the opposition. I think that most people are beginning to realise that not every thing that Rudd says is NOT factual. Be brave and speak up.

Agree (2 people agree)
Disagree (0 people disagree)
 

22 Nov 2009 13:42 AEST

Chris

From: Melbourne

Healthy Discussion

It's good to see the Liberal party is having some healthy discussion. Passing a massive tax like the ETS is not something that should just "pass through" parliament. I think it's disgusting and anti-democratic the way the Labor politicians simply submit to a decision made by their biased policy commitee. The Liberal party should be commended for their idea of free speech and open thought as this will ensure the best decision is made for the Australian people.

Agree (2 people agree)
Disagree (0 people disagree)
 

Join the Discussion

E.g. Suburb / City
You have characters remaining.
Validation (
) :
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.

PLEASE NOTE: All submitted comments become the property of SBS. We reserve the right to edit and/or amend submitted comments. HTML tags other than paragraph, line break, bold or italics will be removed from your comment.