Carbon price lives to see further debate, as Muir blocks vote

The Abbott government’s efforts to fast-track the repeal of Australia’s carbon pricing scheme have again been stymied in the Senate, after rookie Victorian MP Ricky Muir broke ranks with the micro-party bloc to vote in favor of further debate on the issue.

With the commencement of the new Upper House on Monday, the added weight of the Palmer United Party senators is expected to all but guarantee the passage of the carbon tax repeal legislation through the Senate. But first it must be put to a vote – something the government hoped would happen on Wednesday, after the Manager of Government Business, Mitch Fifield, motioned for the legislation be declared urgent.

But it was not to be, with the Motoring Enthusiast Party senator throwing his crucial vote in with fellow crossbench senators, Nick Xenophon and John Madigan, and with Labor and the Greens.

It’s another blow, albeit a small one, to the Abbott government’s current political raison d’être – delivered just hours after a former UK minister from the ultra conservative Thatcher government described his party’s quest to scrap the carbon price as “reckless” and “deeply shaming.”

Lord Deben, who served in Thatcher’s government as John Gummer, told Guardian Australia on Wednesday (and the ABC’s Lateline program on Tuesday night) that the Australian government was out of step with centre-right politicians around the world on the urgency of tackling climate change.

“Conservatives around the world are taking action on climate change, including Britain and Germany. It’s in the DNA of conservatives to hand on a better world to your children and I hate that Australia is letting down conservatives around the world,” Deben said, describing Abbott as someone who “clearly …refuses to accept the science of climate change.”

Today’s vote from Muir – a 32-year-old former timber worker from Gippsland who, according to this recent IPA opinion piece, is more in touch with the vast majority of Australia’s population than any other currently serving MP – represents another, perhaps even more surprising, conservative political perspective that doesn’t quite gel with Abbott’s.

newdaily_080414_ricky_muir
Victorian Senator Ricky Muir, from the Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party

More predictable were the reactions to the motion from Labor and the Greens, with Opposition Senate leader Penny Wong describing it as an outrage: “It is an absolute disgrace and really demonstrates the arrogance of this Government.”

For the Greens’ part, party leader Christine Milne said the Senate could not allow the Coalition to “ram through” the repeal of “probably the most important package of bills for Australia’s future.”

South Australian independent Senator Nick Xenophon called on his fellow crossbenchers to allow debate to continue, declaring his vote was “about the Senate doing its job.”

Debate on the legislation continues, with a vote expected tomorrow.

Comments

13 responses to “Carbon price lives to see further debate, as Muir blocks vote”

  1. Chris Fraser Avatar
    Chris Fraser

    Yeah ! Stick it to them, Rick ! Let them know they’ll be taking nothing for granted.

    1. MrMauricio Avatar
      MrMauricio

      Well Done Ricky Muir-you are showing a heap of true grit!!

      1. michael Avatar
        michael

        yes, good to see the greens get behind and in bed with a party that is based on the premise of increased car usage and usage for entertainment not just need. those pesky automobile emissions don’t count… Milne at Summernats? I assuem Muir needs more debate on this as he has never pondered implications of carbon emissions before

        1. Ashley Rogers Avatar
          Ashley Rogers

          The impact of car emissions are dwarfed by industry and agriculture. They certainly have a role to play in our overall reduction but you achieve nothing by unfairly demonising them and those who enjoy them.

          1. michael Avatar
            michael

            14% of total emissions is insignificant?

          2. Ashley Rogers Avatar
            Ashley Rogers

            You used that word. Not me. Figures I’ve seen say 8% but that’s not the point which you seem determined to miss.

          3. michael Avatar
            michael

            apologies, I was joining the dots between “dwarfed” and “unfairly demonising” to see a pattern of it not being important. As opposed to, let’s take your supposed figure of 8%, being just as important to demonise as the larger percentages from say fixed power generation. Demonising that seems to be a favourite passtime of the green groups.
            in most of the climate debates we are told the percentage isn’t important (ie australia gross emissions)

        2. Craig Allen Avatar
          Craig Allen

          What, are you saying that because Ricky Muir has agreed with a Greens position, the Greens have somehow therefore abandoned their principles. Interesting logic there Michael!

          1. michael Avatar
            michael

            good point, not saying they have abandoned their position, just was a strange voting alliance. Didn’t imagine Muir broke ranks with PUP without being courted by someone, so logically you would assume green/labour have got in his ear to ‘team up’ as it were… just a different inferrence than the article really

          2. Michael Pulsford Avatar
            Michael Pulsford

            Seems to me that if that in fact happened, the Greens did OK out of it. Do you suggest that rather than trying to get policy affecting power generation changed, they should have tried to change his mind about whether to like cars or not?

          3. michael Avatar
            michael

            Of course they’ve done well, just humorous to see these groups Voting together on an issue you wouldn’t expect them to, no?

        3. Peter Campbell Avatar
          Peter Campbell

          I didn’t see Milne at Summernats but I did take my converted electric car to Summernats as part of a display by the Canberra Branch of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association. Others in the group had been nervous about the receptions we might get. I found there was genuine warmth and interest from the revheads, even though I would normally be far more comfortable at an environment fair than summernats. I really am not that interested in the typical summernats stuff but it was an interesting experience. The Summernats people were certainly keen on the idea of maximum torque at zero revs, a flat torque curve that eliminated the need for gear changes, and anyone who was tinkering with cars, no matter what they were doing, was OK by them. I was not shy to say that my main motivation had been to run a car on greenpower and that impressive performance had come along as just a lucky side-effect. I did not find any antagonism to that. Quite a few people were interested in renewable energy issues more generally and doing practical things themselves. I guess my point is that most were not the boof-heads you might have expected and seemed quite reachable.

  2. Alen Avatar
    Alen

    Once the ETS is repealed what does Abbott imagine will happen, his popularity will suddenly rise again? Here in Qld the rise in tariffs from July 1 will result in slight difference between the new and previous bill, maybe then people will realise his whole ‘axe the tax’ slogan was just a massive scare campaign after all.

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