UPDATE Thursday: DONE Success at 11:15am this morning in Canberra. The Carbon Tax is gone.
UPDATE: Weds –– This could take days. The repeal was before the Senate this morning. Labor and the Greens are “dragging the debate out” with speeches. “Filibustering” according to Finance Minister Mathias Corman (The Australian). More debate is due tonight. But the Senate has agreed to extend sitting hours after Friday and keep coming back until this is resolved. They were due to start a 5 week break on Friday. (See Sky News too). This doesn’t look like being resolved today. (SMH)
Sydney Morning Herald: It [The government] was concerned that while all eight cross-bench senators say they are committed to consigning the carbon tax to history in a final vote, as many as three might baulk at the use of a guillotine to bring an end debate and force that vote.
In a further sign the government had lost exclusive control of the legislative timetable, the Climate Change Authority bill was removed from the list of those to be considered, supposedly at the insistence of the PUP.
Sources said the CCA bill, the purported vehicle for Mr Palmer’s proposed ”dormant” emissions trading scheme, will not be presented this week. Fairfax understands there is also last-minute discussion over Mr Palmer’s belated inclusion of India in the basket of countries to which the CCA would be required to look when recommending that Australia should activate its dormant ETS.
This post will stay sticky at the top until this is resolved. New posts will appear underneath – Jo
The carbon tax repeal legislation went through the House of Reps yesterday. It still needs to go through the Senate. It looks likely to be repealed by the end of the week. (Don’t plan the celebrations yet). Clive Palmer has said the PUP senators will accept these amendments. The Senate is sitting til Thursday, though the repeal bill is not listed on the current schedule.
This morning SkyNews was reporting that it may go through the Senate as early as today, but that news story has been updated. The cross-benchers could not agree on the timetable, so perhaps tomorrow, perhaps Thursday? The Parliamentary schedule looks very full. (It also includes the “Climate Change Authority (Abolition) Bill 2013 [No. 2] [homepage]’ and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Repeal) Bill 2014 [homepage] )
— SkyNews (latest) Repeal not set in stone
The Abbott government has yet to secure the Senate votes it needs to get its carbon tax repeal legislation through parliament.
The government had flagged it would fast-track a package of repeal bills through the upper house on Tuesday.
But in a surprise move, it ditched them from the chamber’s program because it can’t get the cross bench to agree on a timetable to debate the bills.
The government is also in negotiations with crossbench senators about other legislation it wants to clear before a five-week break from sittings.
– See more at: SkyNews
This is the thread to discuss Palmer, and the progress of the carbon tax repeal bill.
I will update this thread as news comes in.