The Australian situation tonight: Today the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) decision was successfully delayed by questions until Monday. That’s good news, but there’s no Champers popping yet. The longer we wait, the longer the real story of the fraud has to filter through to our representatives, but this is a race to overcome two decades of propaganda in one weekend.
This week will be written up in history books. Late yesterday a parliamentary mutiny occurred as opposition cabinet members abandoned their leader. Three on Monday: Mitch Fifield, Brett Mason and Mathias Cormann. Then Thursday: six more, and on Friday Concetta Fierravanti-Wells all quit their appointed shadow positions. Senate offices are apparently being swamped with emails. The message it seems, is getting through. (Thanks to all of you who have sent emails, I been copied in on many, please keep them coming š ).
Senator Fierravanti-Wells had been expected to back the ETS laws but has now indicated she will vote against the bill.
‘I acknowledge the avalanche of correspondence and feedback conveyed to me from a wide cross-section of the community, most especially after the decision of the joint party room to amend and support the legislation,’ she said.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells, who is facing a Senate preselection ballot on December 12, indicated she was heeding the view of the NSW Liberal base of the party, which was strongly against the ETS decision.
‘In all my years of involvement in the party, I have never seen such an extraordinary reaction,’ she said. [link]
The left leaning Labor Government needs just 7 votes to get the Legislation through the Senate.
The left leaning Labor Government needs just 7 votes to get the Legislation through the Senate. The Leader of the Opposition – Malcolm Turnbull, appears determined to deliver those votes, no matter what his party say or what scandalous informationĀ is exposed.Ā On Tuesday, he survived a leadership spill, then listened as more than half the members of his own party spoke against the ETS. Through accounting tricks that the East Anglia CRU would be proud of, he announced the opposition supported the ETS. Despite the arrogant bullying, on thatĀ day, it looked to Reuters like the Australian ETS was a done-deal, but the anger and fury within the conservatives was ignited. Turnbull staked his leadership on the line in October, and it’s now almost guaranteed that he will lose that role.
Meanwhile,Ā Reuters is oblivious as to why there is a mass uprising and grassroots protest against the deal, indeed, these two journalists refer to the fate of the legislation as a delay, as if it has never occurred to them that it might not pass. Instead of asking the skeptical parliamentarians the obvious question “Why?”, they talk to anonymous carbon traders and a consultant who not a skeptic. They report that “The delay worried carbon traders”. In this “analysis” they don’t mention theĀ ClimateGate scandal at all — a bit like not noticing the black hole that gatecrashed the party.
The word I have heard is that the Liberal opposition will meet Monday at 9am to solve the leadership question, and then the ETS meeting will start at 10am. But it might be Tuesday, and all of it is subject to change without notice.
In this “analysis” they don’t mention theĀ ClimateGate scandal at all — a bit like not noticing the black hole that gatecrashed the party.
The question now is who will lead the Liberal Party, and which way will they call the party room to move? Will the party vote as one block, or for the first time, will a noteable section “cross the floor”. In Australian politics, “crossing the floor” is a major move. It has simply never happened on a mass scale, but it would have happened any day this week, if the vote had been held. Tony Abbot has written to the Party Whip asking for a leadership spill. A few months ago he thought the party should go with the ETS, because they couldn’t win an election right now. But he has changed his mind.
The other most widely suggested leader is Joe Hockey, who is well liked, but has backed Turnbull all the way with the ETS. Tonight he is apparently face-booking for feedback about views on the climate. No doubt he realizes that there’s no point in the party dumping Turnbull because of the ETS and then adopting another ETS fan. Could be a weekend “conversion” coming. There’s nothing like flexibility.
In Australian politics the “front benchers” means those in the Cabinet, i.e. the top dogs in the party who all have special assigned roles in certain areas. The “back benchers” are the other elected members, (i.e. everyone else who is not part of the select group called the “Cabinet”). This upset has been driven by back benchers, but now gained enough momentum to be picked up by those at the front. The first vote on the opposition leadership on Tuesday this week was like the test run, and even though Turnbull survived, the numbers shocked the party (48 : 35). Someone from out of the blue (Kevin Andrews) amassed 35 votes against the leader. It was a message that his leadership was close to failing. Now today we know that the top dogs, so to speak, are negotiating for the top role.
Malcolm Turnbull has said he won’t go quietly, and people will need to demand that he go. Obviously, they are.
Not coincidentally the New Zealand government unfortunately negotiated their own ETS this week. No doubt they were hoping that Australia would too. It may still happen.Ā The NZ bill was passed 63-58.
Meanwhile Andrew Bolt has been accused of all things, of being a “player”. The ABC may be feeling threatened.