Australia PM says no intention to call snap poll
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Friday he had no intention of calling a snap election, despite parliament's rejection of his government's promised plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
In the biggest setback to Rudd's agenda since his 2007 election victory, the upper house Senate Thursday rejected Rudd's emissions scheme after rival conservative, green and independent lawmakers joined forces to oppose it.
If the Senate blocks or rejects the legislation a second time, after an interval of three months, it would hand Rudd a trigger for an early poll dominated by climate change.
"I have not the slightest intention of going to an early poll. I don't think people like that. I think they want you to serve the term that you've been elected for," Rudd told local radio a day after the defeat.
Climate Minister Penny Wong said the government would bring the package back to parliament and try to push it through before a December U.N. meeting in Copenhagen, where world nations will try to hammer out a broad global climate pact.
But Rudd challenged his majority conservative opponents to propose firm amendments to the scheme which would open the door to a negotiated outcome and passage of the laws, underpinning what would be the world's broadest emissions trade scheme.
"We just want to get on with the job, because the business community wants certainty for the future and they want us to finish the business," he said.
Passage of the scheme in a second vote, the earliest date for which would be November 16, would depend on whether the government was willing to negotiate, analysts said.
"This has been a battle at 100 paces," veteran political commentator Michelle Grattan wrote in the Age newspaper on Friday.
"The opposition has refused to put up specific amendments; the government has declined to talk without the fine print. The next round will be more like mud wrestling if the two sides seriously want to engage," Grattan said.
POLL LEAD
Surveys show Kevin Rudd well ahead in opinion polls and that most Australians favour action to combat climate warming. Elections are due in late 2010.
Rudd has promised emissions cuts of 5-25 percent on 2000 levels by 2020, with the higher end dependent on a global agreement to replace the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol.
But Green and conservative senators have accused the government of sacrificing environmental concerns for an election trigger that would allow Rudd's Labour to skirt delivery of a tough budget next May amid higher unemployment.
As evidence, they point to Rudd's linking of the emissions scheme to widely-backed plans to set a mandatory target for 20 percent of Australia's electricity needs to come from renewable wind, solar and geothermal projects by 2020, up from 1.7 percent.
"Now the government finds its bluff called. It can't responsibly afford to leave the bills linked. That would be counterproductive, both politically and in terms of good policy," wrote Grattan.
Debate on unlinking the two schemes began in parliament on Thursday after the emissions scheme defeat, with signs the government may agree to pass the renewable laws and unlock up to $22 billion in planned renewable energy projects.
The link ties compensation to big polluters under the carbon scheme to assistance for coal-fired electricity generators to help them adjust to the renewables target.
"We've said to the Liberals all along, if you've got an amendment, bring it forward," Rudd said.
(Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)