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The Federal Government has issued an ultimatum to the Opposition in a bid to break the deadlock over its stalled emissions trading legislation.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has written to Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull from the United States, setting out a timetable for negotiations over the scheme.
The increased pressure on the Opposition comes as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd overnight played a leading role at the United Nations leaders forum on climate change.
The Opposition does not want the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme to pass the Senate until after the Copenhagen climate change talks in November.
But it is coming under the increasing threat from the Government of a double dissolution election if it votes down the laws a second time.
Speaking from the UN talks in New York, Mr Rudd said the request was fair.
But Mr Turnbull, who is in London, has dismissed the letter as a stunt.
"I am not interested in Penny Wong's deadlines or timetables. We have a process, it is a business-like process, and we're going to pursue it," he said.
"If she's prepared to negotiate with us over the emissions trading scheme it may be that we'll reach agreement. Maybe we won't."
Mr Turnbull has also brushed aside the possibility of bringing on a double dissolution election if the legislation fails a second time.
"Will we vote for the bill in November? The answer to that as it always has been, that will depend on the extent to which our amendments are agreed to by the Government and the other political circumstances of the time, including what the international developments are.
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As all of these pollies are overseas — including Malcolm in London — Australia is experiencing the worst and strangest weather for a long time. Hot and cold, Hot one day, red-dusty the next, possibly the warmest and driest September, possibly the warmest year on record after the warmest winter on record as 2.4 degree C above average... While Rome burns, Nero and his cohorte plays the violin or the lute, like the orchestra on the titanic... Please Mal, do us a favour. Vote the emission scheme, even if it's not ideal.
- By Gus Leonisky at 23 Sep 2009 - 12:09pm
- Gus Leonisky's blog
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emissions need to be stopped...
The Senate voted down the Government's emissions trading bill in August and if the same thing happens when the bill returns in November, it could be used to trigger a double dissolution.
But the Opposition says the pressure is off because Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has changed his language about the importance of the bill.
For months Mr Rudd has been saying the Senate needs to pass the emissions trading bill before December's Copenhagen meeting on climate change.
Gus: emissions need to be stopped..
rise in sea levels....
Melting ice is pouring off Greenland and Antarctica into the sea far faster than was previously realised because of global warming, new scientific research reveals today.
The accelerating loss from the world's two great land-based ice sheets means a rise in sea levels is likely to happen even more quickly than UN scientists suggested only two years ago, the findings by British scientists suggest.
Although floating ice, such as that in the Arctic Ocean, does not add to sea-level rise when it melts as it is already displacing its own mass in the water, melting ice from the land raises the global sea level directly. At present it is thought that land-based ice melt accounts for about 1.8mm of the current annual sea level rise of 3.2mm – the rest is coming from the fact that water expands in volume as it warms. But the new findings, published online today in the journal Nature, imply that this rate is likely to increase.
High-resolution satellite laser measurements have shown that along both the Greenland and Antarctic coastlines, the glaciers and ice streams which for thousands of years have slowly carried ice into the sea are now rapidly thinning, meaning they are speeding up in their flow. In both cases, the increased flow rate is extending back far into the ice sheets' interior.
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