ETS vote in Senate delayed till August

A date has been set for a vote on emissions trading.
The Senate managed to dodge a vote this week, despite the government's best efforts
to bring it on.
But senators did agree they would come back after parliament's winter holiday and
cast their vote on the scheme on August 13.
Emissions trading is due to start in 2011.
The government is struggling to garner enough support for the scheme but at least it
now has a date for a vote.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong seemed relieved.
"The Senate has today voted to bring the boom down on this delay," Senator Wong told
reporters.
"That will mean there will be no more excuses for the Liberal Party."
The opposition says it won't pass an emissions trading scheme (ETS) this year. It
wants to delay a "no" vote because it could give the government the first trigger
for a double dissolution election.
The Senate's shenanigans this week - endless debates about whether a vote would go
ahead, and attempts to defer it - annoyed the government.
"What are you afraid of?" Labor senator Stephen Conroy asked the opposition.
"Let the sceptics loose ... let's have the vote."
Constitutional law expert George Williams said what the Senate had done this week -
push the ETS laws to the bottom of the agenda, then agree to vote on August 13 -
would probably not be the first trigger to a double dissolution election.
It didn't amount to a "failure to pass" the bills, Prof Williams said.
Meanwhile, the push to ditch emissions trading and find another way to tackle
climate change has gathered momentum.
The opposition and independent senator Nick Xenophon will spend tens of thousands of
dollars - of their own money - on research into the impact of emissions trading.
The modelling, to be conducted by Frontier Economics, will also look into
alternatives to an ETS.
"This is the work that the government should have already done," opposition
spokesman for emissions trading Andrew Robb said.
The Senate also passed a motion urging the government to get the Productivity
Commission to look into alternative models to the ETS.