Gillard and Abbott face party-room unrest

30 Oct 2012, 6:09 pm   -   Source: AAP
(AAP)

(AAP)

Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott have faced down internal party issues, after new polling showed the main parties are neck in neck with voters.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott have been forced to head off potentially damaging stoushes and outbreaks of ill-discipline in their party rooms.

The leaders made their stands on Tuesday after a Newspoll on Monday showed Labor's two-party preferred vote rising to 50 per cent, equal to the coalition's.

The poll has encouraged government MPs because it indicates an easing in the coalition's polling from the peaks reached after the announcement of Labor's carbon pricing plan.

Ahead of question time on Tuesday, Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott delivered pep talks to their party room meetings and separately addressed internal policy rifts and ill-discipline.

Mr Abbott counselled coalition MPs against "making ourselves the issue", adding that "how we end the year is how we will start next year", when the next federal election will be held.

In a bid to build bridges across state lines and between the coalition parties over the future of the Murray-Darling Basin, the opposition set up a committee - jointly chaired by the Nationals' Barnaby Joyce and the Liberals' Simon Birmingham - to develop its response to the government's plan.

Laws to set up a trust fund to provide extra water for environmental flows into the ailing river system, which crosses four states, will go before parliament on Wednesday. The complete plan is due to be presented by the end of the year.

Labor is expected to need coalition support to get the laws through the Senate, because the Greens so far appear unlikely to back it.

But one South Australian Liberal MP told the joint party meeting the laws were a "political strategy" to divide and trap the coalition.

At the Labor meeting, Ms Gillard read MPs the riot act over the leaking of a draft document written by a caucus sub-committee, which raises concerns that workers and industry aren't getting enough of the benefits of the mining boom.

The prime minister was angry because the draft was leaked before she had even seen it and she called on caucus to respect proper processes on such matters.

During question time, the coalition pursued the government for a second day in a row on whether it could guarantee a budget surplus in 2012/13, given it had made such promises in the past.

"Come on, debate the economy," shadow treasurer Joe Hockey shouted across the chamber as he unsuccessfully tried to suspend parliament to call on Treasurer Wayne Swan to rule out tax increases to prop up the budget.

Mr Swan accused Mr Hockey of delivering a "conga line of clangers" in recent days by getting the economic growth rate wrong and insisting Murray-Darling Basin funding was not included in last week's mid-year budget review.

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet told parliament the coalition's polling was diving because they were "economically and environmentally reckless".

"Carbon pricing has been settling well into our economy and none of the absurd and mendacious predictions made by the opposition leader have come to bear at all," Mr Combet said.

Meanwhile, Labor avoided a potential internal stoush after Right faction powerbroker Senator Don Farrell agreed to swap places with Finance Minister Penny Wong on the South Australian senate ticket.

Senator Farrell won the top spot in a weekend ballot, but Left faction figures were threatening to challenge the vote at the ALP's national executive meeting on Friday.

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