2 Dec 2009

Australian Senate votes down emissions scheme

6:17 pm on 2 December 2009

The Australian government is to make a third attempt to get its emissions trading scheme legislation through the Senate early next year.

The Opposition controlled Senate on Wednesday rejected the emissions trading scheme (ETS) for a second time but the acting prime minister, Julia Gillard, says the government won't call an early election to break the deadlock, the ABC reports.

She says it will, instead, bring the legislation back on the first sitting day in February so the opposition Liberals, fresh from dumping their leader for supporting the ETS, can reconsider.

But it appears the Opposition will not be backing down, with its leader Tony Abbott dumping an ETS from the Coalition policy at the next election and opening the debate on nuclear power.

Mr Abbott ousted the Liberal Party's Malcolm Turnbull by just one vote in a leadership spill on Tuesday following a tumultuous week of fighting over climate change and leadership.

The election was triggered by Mr Turnbull's support for the Government's emissions trading scheme, which Mr Abbott opposed.

Mr Abbott, 52, takes over the leadership of the Liberal Party after 15 years in parliament and a decade as a minister. He will keep Julie Bishop as his deputy.