The good news is that Tony Abbott, who never had any intention of doing anything other than oppose the ETS, called a secret ballot on the matter of the ETS after he became party leader, and the party voted 55 to 29 in favour of deferring the ETS instead of supporting it.
The bad news is that four Liberal Senators are willing to cross the floor and vote for the ETS, according to an anonymous source of News Limited blog The Punch [1]. Thankfully that is short of the seven Senators that Rudd/Wong/Gillard need in order to have the ETS approved by the Senate.
Two things on those Senators. Firstly, I’m surprised that there are four willing to cross the floor. One or two I could understand, but four seems a bit high immediately after the party voted in a new anti-ETS leader and clearly voted against the ETS.
Secondly, why do I get the awful feeling that Gary Humphries is one of the Senators who could cross the floor?
Update: Greens leader Bob Brown has just said what I’ve been saying for a while now. An Abbott Liberal Party gives Labor and the Greens the opportunity to negotiate a stronger ETS…one that they actually believe in. We can now have an election where the issue is a Labor/Greens “strong ETS” versus a Liberal/National “no ETS”. End Update
Samuel