Turnbull declares victory over ETS deal

Malcolm Turnbull will face his party room at 8pm (AEST) on Tuesday after
unilaterally declaring victory for his climate change deal despite opponents
believing numbers were against him.
The marathon party room meeting broke up just after 7pm after Mr Turnbull caused
uproar by making his declaration when senators were in the chamber for a division.
Liberal sources have put the number of speakers against the climate change deal at
40 plus while speakers in support of the agreement were only in the 30s.
Despite what many believe was an obvious movement against the deal, Mr Turnbull
declared victory, which has caused outrage among some in the coalition.
"The party is in uproar," one Liberal said.
The source said that the leadership was likely to be canvassed at the meeting on
Tuesday night.
Coalition members have spent most of Tuesday debating the deal.
At one stage, maverick Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey warned Mr Turnbull that unless he
decided to allow the party a secret ballot he would call for a leadership spill at
10am (AEST) on Thursday.
But perhaps the biggest blow to Mr Turnbull's authority was made by former climate
change ally Andrew Robb.
Mr Robb said the deal wasn't good enough and should not be supported because it
didn't address all the problems with the ETS.
Among the issues he raised was a loss of Australian competitiveness and problems
with too much red tape.
The joint party room was also upset by an admission from Ian Macfarlane, who nutted
out the agreement with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, that he wasn't expecting
a deal at the Copenhagen climate change conference next month.
The proposed ETS amendments provide more concessions to the coal, electricity supply
and LNG sectors.
The proposals would double the transitional assistance to the coal sector to $1.5
billion over five years and would increase help to electricity providers by $4
billion to $7.3 billion.
Agricultural emissions will be excluded from the scheme and a program of offsets
will also be offered to farmers who make efforts to reduce carbon pollution.
However, the household assistance package would be slashed by $6.7 billion over 10
years to 2019/20.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said average assistance of 120 per cent to low-income
families remained in place.
"We don't intend with our families and in particular low-income families to shoulder
the pain of the adjustment," he said.
"This has to be done equitably across the entire economy."
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the extra assistance to electricity
suppliers was not designed to keep a lid on prices.
Mr Rudd asked the opposition to take into account a number of issues before arriving
at a decision on the amendments.
"Australia is one of the hottest and driest continents on earth ... Australia will
be hit hardest and fastest by climate change," Mr Rudd said.
Despite the effort to reach the deal, the government couldn't rule out further
changes once the international community met in Copenhagen next month.
The Australian Greens criticised the government for "giving in" to polluters.
"It's polluters' pay day in Parliament House," Greens leader Bob Brown told reporters.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon said he still couldn't support the government's
scheme.
"It's all economic pain, with little environmental gain," he said.
Mr Rudd was interrupted during parliament's question time with a bout of
high-pitched whistling, before some 20 climate change protesters were forcibly
removed from the public gallery by security officers.
Protest organiser Byron Fay said the group was demonstrating against the
government's weak emission reduction targets and increased compensation for the coal
industry.