THE Senate has handed Kevin Rudd his second trigger for a double dissolution election as it continues with what some in government believe is a concerted strategy to block key policy measures and paralyse its agenda.
The Coalition and Senate independents Nick Xenophon and Steve Fielding voted yesterday to defeat last year's budget measure to means test the 30 per cent private health rebate, a change which would have saved $1.9 billion over three years.
It is the second time the legislation has been blocked and it joins the original emissions trading scheme, which was blocked twice last year, as a double dissolution trigger.
The Senate is lining up to inflict more pain. It intends to block changes to the Youth Allowance for university students as well as the reintroduction of a compulsory student fee to fund campus services.
Both are on track to be blocked by the middle of March, and the latter will become a trigger because it has been blocked more then three months before.
Mr Rudd does not intend to hold an early election but he can hold a double dissolution as late as October 16, when the next normal half-Senate election is due.
A double dissolution is when both houses are dissolved and includes a full Senate election. The government could use it as an excuse to try for a less complex Senate and, if successful, hold a joint sitting of Parliament afterwards to pass blocked bills.
The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, says he relishes a double dissolution on either climate change or the private health insurance means test because the latter was a broken promise. The Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, said yesterday she had no problem fighting an election on a policy that would stop taxpayers subsidising the health insurance of the wealthy.
Any chance of the more industry-friendly emissions trading scheme that the government negotiated with Malcolm Turnbull last year becoming a double dissolution trigger perished yesterday when the Senate voted to delay further debate until May. Even if blocked then, the government would have to wait three months to have it blocked again before it would become a trigger.
The ETS was dealt a further blow when the Australian Industry Group, which had been pivotal in negotiating the ETS on behalf of industry, accepted that the government's scheme was doomed and declared it was almost back to the drawing board for business. The group's chief executive, Heather Ridout, who had helped persuade the Government to delay its scheme by a year, announced there would be a meeting of Australia's industry leaders to discuss a new way forward.
The scheme died after Tony Abbott deposed Malcolm Turnbull and withdrew all support for a market mechanism such as an ETS or carbon tax. The AI Group national executive resolved yesterday that whatever was devised for the long term had to be a market mechanism and take into account the concerns that industry expressed with the ETS.
But the AI Group did not rule out supporting the Coalition's direct action policy between now and 2020. Ms Ridout said everything, including an ETS, a carbon tax and direct action, would be looked at.
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