MORE than half the Coalition's 37 senators have formally declared their
opposition to Malcolm Turnbull's desire to cut a deal with Labor on the
emissions trading scheme, setting up a showdown next week that many
fear could tear the Opposition apart.
As the Prime Minister,
Kevin Rudd, linked the heatwave savaging southern Australia to global
warming, the Coalition senators split into two camps - those backing Mr
Turnbull and those backing the Opposition Senate leader and climate
change sceptic, Nick Minchin.
In the most open show of
defiance to date, 12 Liberals and all five Nationals sat in solidarity
behind Senator Minchin as he slammed the emissions trading scheme and
Mr Rudd's desire to pass it before the Copenhagen conference next month.
"Mr Rudd is prepared to sacrifice Australia's national interest on the altar of his vanity," Senator Minchin said.
The
senator, who contends man-made climate change is a global left-wing
conspiracy, said it was "a disgrace" to describe carbon dioxide as
pollution.
"The Senate overwhelmingly rejected this abomination in August. It should do so again."
Apart
from the show of force by the 17 senators - including the deputy Senate
leader, Eric Abetz, who sat behind Senator Minchin, three others in the
group were unable to attend.
That makes 21 out of 37
hostile to Mr Turnbull's acceptance that there should be a deal with
Labor. In the corridors afterwards, Senator Minchin's supporters lauded
the success of their display. "We were tightly packed behind him; it
was a show of solidarity," said one.
While Mr Turnbull and
his chief negotiator, Ian Macfarlane, are optimistic a deal will be
struck with the Government and approved by a majority of Liberals,
there are fears about the consequences of risking a large split.
Mr
Turnbull's followers were speculating that should he prevail, Senator
Minchin would have to leave the frontbench and should consider
resigning altogether. Rebels believed Mr Turnbull's leadership would be
untenable if he failed.
"This will leave a lingering
bitterness in the party that will hang around for years," said one
senior Liberal. Said another veteran: "There's more tension in the
party than I have known in more than 15 years here."
Tony
Abbott, who once advocated passing the bill, is now arguing internally
that it should be opposed for the sake of party unity.
Senator
Minchin's followers were claiming Mr Turnbull's "henchmen" were ringing
young rebel senators and MPs and warning them they would be
jeopardising their futures.
Mr Rudd demanded Mr Turnbull
guarantee there be a vote before Parliament rises for the year next
Thursday. As the nation sweltered in a spring heatwave, the Prime
Minister lashed the Coalition's climate change deniers.
"It
is as if we are back into the trial of Galileo or something and they
are simply arguing somehow that science is a fiction and that they
alone, in their own prejudiced view, occupy fact," he said.
"No
wonder the Leader of the Opposition has such a hard time. If you have
to put up with that mate, I have sympathy for you, I really do."
The Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner, also ridiculed Senator Minchin and his followers.
"Senator Minchin is incubating a kind of rural militia from backwoods Montana in the Senate," he said.
Mr
Macfarlane told a business function on Wednesday night that the call to
wait until after Copenhagen was irrelevant because Mr Rudd was setting
the timetable. He said the Government had a mandate to introduce an
emissions trading scheme. "I'm negotiating on the basis that by the
time the Senate rises at the end of next week he will have what he is
demanding but it will be on our terms."
The Government
needs seven Senate votes and there are more than enough Liberal
senators who will support a scheme if the party accepts the
Government's offer.
