Australia’s conservative Liberal-National Prime Minister Tony Abbott has personally introduced his government’s “signature” laws to repeal the former Labor government’s carbon price scheme.
However, he had to wait more than an hour after Parliament resumed as the first business day of Parliament descended into a row over name-calling and allegations of secrecy.
The government’s bid to raise the debt ceiling by $200 billion also appears set for defeat in the Senate, with the Australian Greens Party announcing it will back Labor’s amendment to cap it at half that amount.
The 44th Parliament began, not with the government’s first order of business, the Carbon Tax Repeal Bill 2013, but with the Labor opposition putting pressure on the government’s asylum seeker policies.
An hour long wrangle over name calling and procedural votes ensued before the parliament was able to hear Mr Abbott move the first of the carbon price legislation repeal bills.
“Madam Speaker, the Australian people have already voted upon this bill and now the Parliament gets its chance,” Mr Abbott said.
“The election was a referendum on the carbon tax, the people have spoken, now it’s up to this Parliament to show that it’s listened.”
Sixteen protesters were removed from the public gallery for interjecting during the Prime Minister’s speech.
The laws are set for defeat in the Senate however, with both Labor and Australian Greens opposing the Government’s alternative Direct Action policy.
In moving to repeal the laws The Government has revealed a $7.37bn hit to the budget over the forward estimates from its repeal of the carbon price.
The financial impact was revealed in a table from the explanatory memorandum the government introduced to the Parliament today.
In addition the government also included a series of other bills that would abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Climate Change Authority and also cut the funding allocated to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency by $434.9 million.
The final budget impact of $7.37bn is after taking into account the savings to the budget from the three measures above as well as cancelling a range of compensation measures to business.
After much internal deliberation, Mr Shorten said Labor would block Mr Abbott’s scrapping of the carbon price unless the Prime Minister agreed to move from a fixed price on carbon to an emissions trading scheme.
Mr Abbott has already ruled out this option, arguing he wants no price on carbon at all.
Mr Shorten also wants to delay the passage of carbon price repeal legislation through the Senate and Labor wants the Australian Greens to help delay the Senate vote until March 2014.
Mr Shorten also wants the Australian Greens to back a twin Senate inquiry into the abolition of a price on carbon and the coalition’s Direct Action policy.
While the Greens support an inquiry into what they call Mr Abbott’s “sham” Direct Action policy, Australian Greens leader Senator Christine Milne said she would not support a delay on a vote to repeal the carbon price.
She said the Australian Greens wanted to reject the bills immediately in the Senate.
Meanwhile, the government’s bid to raise the nation’s debt ceiling from $300 billion to $500 billion is destined to face the same fate, with Labor’s move to limit the increase to $400 billion winning Australian Greens support.
Opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said Labor would not budge on the amount, unless the Government immediately released updated Treasury figures.
