Robb deals blow to Turnbull on ETS

24 Nov 2009, 5:10 pm   -   Source: AAP/SBS
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Former climate change spokesman Andrew Robb has voiced his opposition tot he ETS deal (AAP)

Former climate change spokesman Andrew Robb has voiced his opposition tot he ETS deal (AAP)

Malcolm Turnbull has come under fire from the coalition, with key former climate change ally Andrew Robb slamming the ETS, and Wilson Tuckey MP threatening a leadership spill.

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Key former climate change ally Andrew Robb has said the government's emissions trading scheme deal isn't good enough, as outspoken Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey threatened a leadership spill in the party room.

The criticism by Mr Robb, the coalition's former climate change spokesman, has dealt a severe blow to the opposition leader's authority on the issue.

During a charged joint party room meeting, Mr Robb, who retired to the back bench due to illness, told his colleagues the deal shouldn't be supported because it didn't address all the problems with the ETS.

Among the issues he raised was a loss of Australian competitiveness and problems with too much red tape.

He is understood to have received a sustained and thunderous round of applause.

Party-room meeting postponed

"His speech was just outstanding," one backbencher said.

The meeting had been going for four hours but broke for question time at 1400 AEDT and is expected to resume around 1545 AEDT.

There is believed to have been uproar in the party room when the meeting broke - and there was for some time confusion about whether question time might be delayed.

Speakers for and against the proposed changes are believed to have been relatively even to this point, but some have accused Mr Turnbull of manipulating the speakers list to ensure a more even result.

"He's been changing the order and deliberately leaving people off," said one Liberal backbencher.

Many opponents of the ETS deal still haven't been given an opportunity to speak.

West Australian Liberal Luke Simpkins told the meeting he believed the scheme's opponents had the numbers.

Call for secret ballot on ETS

Numerous backbenchers have called for a secret ballot on the issue, saying it is the only hope the Liberal Party has of uniting after the divisiveness of the climate change debate.

WA powerbroker Mathias Cormann and former Senate president Alan Ferguson are both understood to have told the party room there needed to be a secret ballot.

Senator Cormann is understood to have told the party room the process had been much more divisive than it needed to be but a secret ballot could help "clear the air".

Mr Turnbull isn't supportive of the idea.

The joint party room has also been upset by an admission from Ian Macfarlane, who nutted out the agreement with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, that he wasn't expecting a deal at the Copenhagen climate change conference next month.

"He told us he'd gone through the negotiations on the basis of no deal," one source said. "That really took people aback."

The Rudd government is playing up the new cosiness with Mr Macfarlane, whom Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called "Macca" during a news conference to detail the agreement.

 

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