Australia May Call Early Poll If Carbon Plan Fails - Minister
CANBERRA -(Dow Jones)- A senior Australian government minister said Friday
that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd could call an early election if Parliament fails
to pass his carbon trading program.
The government is negotiating possible changes to the program with opposition
lawmakers who control the upper house Senate. It is hopeful a deal can be
brokered over the weekend.
Parliament enters its final week of the year on Monday, leaving just days for
the government to push through its carbon program before a long summer recess.
Business groups are calling on lawmakers to settle the issue, given
uncertainty around the carbon program is hampering firms' ability to make
investment decisions and strike forward contracts, particularly in the
electricity sector.
"This has been rejected once, we want to pass it the second time," Trade
Minister Simon Crean told Sky News Television.
Australia's center-left Labor government won a majority in the lower House of
Representatives in a November 2007 election. But it needs the Senate support of
either the main conservative Liberal-National opposition, or all seven minor
party senators to pass any new laws.
Opposition lawmakers already rejected the legislation once, in August. Under
Australian electoral laws, the government can call an early election if the same
piece of legislation is twice rejected by the Senate, three months' apart.
Australia is the biggest per capita polluter in the developed world, due
mainly to the fact that it uses fossil fuels, chiefly coal, for around 90% of
its electricity generation.
The climate bills currently before the Senate, if passed, would see Australia
introduce a market-based carbon trading scheme, similar to one already operating
in Europe, in July 2011, forcing the nation's biggest polluters to pay for their
greenhouse-gas emissions.
The aim, by 2020, is to reduce Australia's emissions by at least 5% from
levels at the turn of the century.
Some conservative lawmakers still harbor deep concerns about the program and
are threatening to vote it down, even if a deal is brokered by conservative
party negotiators to increase compensation for industry.
That would be a break from the more usual situation where coalition party
members vote as a block. Already, senators from junior coalition partner the
rural-based Nationals have said they'll block the legislation regardless of any
negotiation outcomes.
The government has been negotiating with the conservative Liberal-National
coalition on a series of demands ranging from agriculture to coal mining, food
processing and others.
The government said Sunday it is prepared to exclude agriculture from its
carbon trading program but Climate Change Minister Penny Wong wouldn't be drawn
Friday on other possible concessions.
"We want a scheme that is environmentally effective as well as economically
responsible. That's how we'll judge all of the issues that are on the table,"
she told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Conservative Senator Nick Minchin, who leads the Liberal party in the Senate,
Thursday described the carbon program as an "abomination".
His comments are at odds with Liberal-National coalition leader Malcolm
Turnbull, who has staked his leadership on delivering enough conservative votes
to pass the program if the coalition amendments are agreed to by the government.
-By Rachel Pannett, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-6208-0901; rachel.pannett@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-19-092042ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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