Hockey declares conscience vote!
News: If Hockey wins tomorrow and becomes leader of the Opposition, he will allow a conscience vote. This means only seven senators need to vote for the huge ETS package and it would still get in.
Tony Abbot is now the best chance there is to delay this legislation. Abbott vs Hockey tomorrow.
A conscience vote? This has what this has come down too? Our elected representatives think a topic of science is decided by conscience? (Well why not? Just roll the dice!)
Shall we ask the clouds if they have an ethical code about warming the planet? Talk to thermometers and see if they are morally upstanding?
History will damn the Liberals as unscientific cowards afraid to stand up to bullies who call people names rather than discuss the evidence. Parliament is not that far from the stone age.
Thanks to Mattb for the heads up.
Allen F yesterday commented:
“The other most widely suggested leader is Joe Hockey”
Not a wise choice, in my opinion. His wife is head of foreign exchange
and global finance at Deutsche Bank, one of the leading financial houses
pushing carbon trading. Can Hockey distance himself from the suggestion
of undue influence? The same cloud hangs over Turnbull, formerly head
of Goldman Sachs in Oz.
I too am uncomfortable with the close links to banking profits. The ETS offers untold fortunes in trading.
I always thought Joe Hockey would be a bad choice. Despite his wife’s connections with Deutsche Bank, of which I do agree with you. It seems to me – and I may be wrong, – that he may not have looked at the ‘Science’ behind this scam. A ‘conscience vote’ is a good ‘out’ for him. After all, he was backing Turnbull for the ETS, now he is about to do a ‘Brutus’ (Et tu, Brute). For the Coalition and the Country, it would be out of the Turnbull fry pan, into the Hockey fire.
Our only hope is Tony Abbot.
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I agree Joe Hockey is too close to the ETS policy to be trusted. A conscience vote is too easy and will just allow the ETS to pass. However I think China’s leadership (who are nearly all engineers) may have been following climategate closely. Newsflash : China holds mini-summit “coup” in Beijing with India, Brazil, South Africa and Sudan – threaten joint walkout of Copenhagen unless their demands are fully met. This includes NO legally binding targets. Doesn’t this just demonstrate how mad it is to pass anything before Copenhagen? I admit I am a skeptic on Global Warming. To me the last 10 years of cooling while CO2 has risen is proof enough that CO2 is having little or no effect.
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Agree with all that BJM.
If Joe Hockey is the answer, it must have been a real dumb question! After the drubbing the Libs got from their constituents last week, could they really think their supporters are so stupid as to accept another Rudd-lite?
We really are living the old Chinese curse aren’t we?
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This is not unexpected. The Australian parliament has a long and proud history of puting party politics aside and allowing a conscience vote on religious matters.
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What is happening in Canberra is politics not science. I think Joe Hockey as leader is the only way to keep the Liberal Party as a cohesive group. At least they have the courage and the right to air their convictions. It’s more than I can say for Labor. If only they were allowed a conscience vote, maybe we would see a few crossing the floor the other way. As Nick Minchin said in his interview with Kerry O’Brien on Friday, he knows of a number of AGW sceptics in the Labor Party.
Meanwhile, I can confirm that ‘global warming’ is definitely happening around East Anglia. There are a few at CRU starting to feel the heat. See links below:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6678469/Climategate-University-of-East-Anglia-U-turn-in-climate-change-row.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6936328.ece
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If there is no place for a free-thinking liberal politician in the Liberal party… maybe it is time for a new party.
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I think this link pretty well sums up, exactly what the Politicians should be reading and our Main Media should be showing the public.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/6679082/Climate-change-this-is-the-worst-scientific-scandal-of-our-generation.html
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Well, apparently Tony Abbott will now run against Joe Hockey to try to prevent a free vote. I wish him the best of luck. Go Tony you are our only hope.
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My guess is the main players in the Liberal party are all seasoned, rational politicians, with the exception of Malcolm Turnbull. Surely they have developed a strategy to achieve their desired end game. Which I think is:
1. Separate the leadership issue from the ETS
2. Get rid of Turnbull – he’s now electoral poison
3. Nick Minchin hasn’t put his 30 year political career on the line to end up having Hockey declare a conscience vote on the ETS
4. Prevent a Rudd victory and also prevent him from being able to claim that the Liberals have some responsibility/ownership for the ETS – which is surely a dog.
Consequently, my prediction is Tony Abbot becomes the new Liberal leader, passes a motion for a senate inquiry into the ETS, and hence it is voted down.
This also allows Hockey to come out unscathed, and keep his powder dry.
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From the links given in post 5 I see Phil Jones asserting that CRU’s data agrees with NASA’s (trying to save his neck?). Could that possibly be because CRU and NASA conspired to make it that way? NASA is in this up to its ears and needs to be exposed like CRU. These people feed off of and enable each other in the most shameful way.
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JS – Rudd shares your hopes for Abbott’s success.
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In a battle between Hockey and Abbott, here’s hoping that Minchin wins…
For more evidence of criminal behaviour…
http://joannenova.com.au/2009/11/cru-data-cooking-recipe-exposed/
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BJM: A couple of people have pointed out how Booker’s latest column doesn’t show up in a search at Google News. It’ll show articles that link to it, as well as Booker’s previous column, but not the one you link to.
I’m sure it’s just a glitch…
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Lol Abbott it is!!!
Don;t you just love political Spin… Julie Bishops “”Today our colleagues showed a great sense of unity … they have drawn a line and we will now move forward under our new leader Tony Abbott.””
Vote outcome – 42 to 41!!!! 1 measly vote… split the party, cross the floor, pass the ETS. Abbott was going to, so none of Turnbull’s supporters should have any moral dilemma there.
A day science cheers a conservative close ally of the conservatives in the Catholic Church is a strange day indeed.
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Yes, Matt, time to party, but crickey, what a margin?!!
As long as Abbott keeps his science and his religion separate we’ll be in a far better place than where we were yesterday. Rudd after all, is a member of the Church of Carbon.
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Sorry about the link everybody. Try going to
http://technorati.com/
That is where I obtained Christopher Booker’s article via the Telegraph UK.
It is located on the left side of the page – about half way down.
Once again, apologies.
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Here’s hoping that the ALP do a deal with the greens and introduce a far more imposing CPRS:)
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