Coalition to vote down ETS in Reps

The coalition is expected to present a united front and vote down emissions trading
legislation when it is brought before parliament next week.
But Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull denies the show of unity will disrespect the
good faith negotiations still being nutted out between the government and the
coalition.
"We've made it very clear that we do not support the bill in its current form," he
told reporters in Albury on Thursday.
"And until such time as an agreement is reached, obviously, we don't support it."
The government will use its numbers to push its controversial carbon pollution
reduction scheme (CPRS) - also known as an emissions trading scheme (ETS) - through
the lower house on Monday, even as amendments are still being negotiated.
The legislation is then expected to go before the Senate, where the real action will
happen, Mr Turnbull conceded.
"The real action, obviously, and the place where it will be amended if agreement is
reached is, obviously, in the Senate," he said.
If the coalition and the government can broker a deal on amendments to the scheme,
they will be introduced - and debated - there, he said.
The scheme is set to dominate the last sitting of parliament, when it begins next
week, with debate already starting to heat up.
The Australian Greens lashed out at the government on Thursday for excluding it from
emissions trading negotiations.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong met with the Greens on October 28 to discuss
possible amendments, with a pre-requisite demand they lower their global emission
targets.
Senator Wong told the Greens to agree to the government's targets of five to 25 per
cent reduction in global emissions, or else not expect to join the negotiating
table, deputy Greens leader Christine Milne said.
"That's clearly a way of refusing to negotiate with the Greens," she told AAP.
"It's more the case that the government has decided that its real allies in
negotiation were the coalition because that means they would brown it down even more
- and keep all the coal and the large polluters onside.
"Whereas negotiating with the Greens would have meant responding to the science and
that would have meant that they had no leg to stand on in terms of the massive
compensation going to the polluters."
A vote in the Senate is expected in the week beginning November 23.