THE Federal Government has put more pressure on the Opposition by demanding that a vote on the emissions trading scheme be held this year, and the Coalition leadership has warned its MPs and senators to stop behaving like a rabble over the matter.
During a routine party-room meeting yesterday, Malcolm Turnbull said the Coalition was languishing in the polls because of the public squabbling. If it continued, he said, it would jeopardise the party's prospects in the upcoming byelections for Higgins and Bradfield, brought on by the resignations of Peter Costello and Brendan Nelson.
"There is no such thing as a safe seat, particularly at a byelection," Mr Turnbull said.
The Deputy Opposition Leader, Julie Bishop, echoed his call for unity, saying the party was "seen to be a rabble" and that was why it had been trounced in recent polls.
Coalition MPs and senators have fought bitterly over the Opposition's response to Labor's emissions trading scheme. Mr Turnbull put his leadership on the line to secure approval to negotiate a raft of amendments, negotiations that are under way.
The Government said it would only negotiate changes that maintained the revenue neutrality of the scheme as well as its greenhouse reduction targets.
But in Parliament yesterday, the Assistant Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, added a third criterion: "That the Coalition commit to voting on the timetable that we set on this legislation this year in advance of the Copenhagen conference."
The Government has been urging the Coalition to commit to a vote before the international climate change conference in December, but Mr Turnbull is refusing. He has flagged delaying the vote until next year, which most of his backbench wants.
The Coalition has recommended extra billions of dollars in compensation for heavy polluters, but says its changes would create a self-funding scheme. It submitted its costings to the Government yesterday.
During the party-room meeting, Mr Turnbull told his colleagues to be careful about their public comments so as not to imperil negotiations.
The leading rebel, Wilson Tuckey, complained about comments by the shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, describing him as the mad uncle of the Liberal Party. But missing from the meeting was the backbencher Dennis Jensen, who has vowed to reject any ETS.
Dr Jensen was speaking at a sceptics conference in Canberra, where he restated his view that humans were not contributing to climate change and called for the dissolution of the International Panel on Climate Change, a body of thousands of scientists.
To the chagrin of the Nationals, Mr Turnbull lauded comments by the National Farmers Federation, which supports the amendments, especially calls for the permanent exclusion of agriculture.
The NFF became embroiled in a nasty fight with the Nationals after calling on the party to drop its blanket opposition to any deal and support the amendments.
The Nationals senator Ron Boswell wrote to the NFF president, David Crombie, saying: "There is obviously a considerable gap between what farmers tell me and what you seem to think they are saying on the ETS."
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