Shortly before midday today, the Senate rejected the 11 CPRS Bills outright, even after two Liberal Senators crossed the floor to vote with the government.
It is not obvious what the next step is.
The government now has a double dissolution trigger, but the Bills that could be presented to a joint sitting after such a dissolution could not incorporate any of the elements of the ‘deal’ struck by the government with Malcolm Turnbull and Ian Macfarlane (including the more generous EITE assistance measures and LNG provisions).
On the other hand, the government announced yesterday that the ‘deal’ is now officially government policy.
Nothing about this situation is predictable. However, the result may be that the government goes to a ‘normal’ election with the CPRS (as amended in the ‘deal’) as policy. Another possibility is that the government will call a double dissolution election, after which (assuming that it wins) it will attempt to pass the CPRS (as amended in the ‘deal’) in the Senate in the normal way and, only if it is unable to do that will it present the CPRS (without the ‘deal’ amendments) to a joint sitting.
This article was written by John Taberner, Consultant and Jason Johnston, Senior Associate, Sydney.
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