The Australian
By: Dennis Shanahan
Tony Abbott has urged Liberal MPs to back the embattled leadership of Malcolm Turnbull and asked them to pass Kevin Rudd's flawed emissions trading scheme in the Senate to avoid a double-dissolution election that they cannot win.
The one-time leadership opponent to Mr Turnbull has turned into his staunchest public defender and has appealed to Liberal MPs to "allow" the Opposition Leader to exercise his assessment on emissions trading and to save the Coalition "from a fight it can't win".
Mr Abbott has explicitly backed Mr Turnbull's preference to overturn the Coalition's current stance of blocking the emissions trading scheme in the Senate and denied the leader had been "arrogantly" asserting his views over the party.
"He is actually managing it rather well," Mr Abbott said, following Liberal criticism of Mr Turnbull's leadership style.
Mr Abbott's strong advocacy of Mr Turnbull's right to change the party's position threatens to fuel divisions over climate change. Last night, the Liberal leader in the Senate, Nick Minchin, another conservative on the issue, told ABC TV's Q&A program the Coalition would block the emissions trading scheme in the Senate next month.
"We don't think parliament should be presented with legislation on this subject until after we know the outcome of Copenhagen," Mr Minchin said.
"We will vote against this legislation in August, as will every other non-government senator."
Although Mr Abbott believes an emissions trading scheme won't cut global carbon emissions and that it will cost jobs, the conservative Liberal frontbencher and Howard government minister has called for Liberals to pass the ETS in the Senate and avoid a double-dissolution election.
Mr Abbott said Mr Turnbull's suggestion that the Coalition seek amendments and pass the emissions trading scheme bill, which is up for its first vote in the Senate on August 13, was "his attempt to save the Coalition from a fight it can't win".
The opposition spokesman on families and housing is the first Liberal frontbencher to explicitly back the Liberal leader's suggestion the Coalition pass the bill quickly after seeking business-friendly amendments.
The Coalition opposed the emissions trading scheme in the House of Representatives and its current position is to oppose it in the Senate and start the process for calling an early double-dissolution election next year. But there have been discussions within shadow cabinet about passing the bill as soon as possible to allow the opposition to concentrate on the Rudd government's economic management.
Mr Turnbull's personal support in Newspoll has recently taken the biggest plunge of any opposition leader and his position has been described as "terminal" by some Liberal MPs, although there is no-one to replace him.
Mr Abbott, who is releasing his own book next week on conservative politics, is not regarded as a leadership candidate in the short term and he has been strongly aiding Mr Turnbull in parliament when the Liberals have been under pressure.
"Opposing the legislation in the Senate could ultimately make poor policy even worse because the government could negotiate a deal with the Greens," Mr Abbott says in an article published in The Australian today.
"Alternatively, after several months in which political debate focuses on climate change and opposition obstructionism, the government could call a double-dissolution election on the issue of who's fair dinkum about trying to save the planet."
Mr Turnbull was attacked from within his own party this week when he suggested overturning the Coalition's current position on emissions trading and agreeing to pass the scheme with business-friendly amendments.
Liberal backbencher Wilson Tuckey accused his leader of arrogance and inexperience in contradicting the Coalition position, sparking an internal party battle. Mr Tuckey also suggested Mr Turnbull was scared of facing a double-dissolution election over the issue.
But Mr Abbott said Mr Turnbull was being "far from arrogant" and knew "voters are unlikely to be argued into changing their minds" on an ETS.
"Oppositions, after all, can't save the country from the wrong side of the parliament and can't be expected to protect people from the consequences of changing government," he said. "It will be the cost and complexity of emissions trading and the absence of anything much out of the ordinary about climate that will slowly engender second thoughts."
Mr Abbott also said the Coalition was in a political bind climate change. "The problem, at least for politicians who prefer rational debate to following fads, is the public's current perception that climate change is uniquely dangerous and particularly associated with man-made carbon dioxide emissions," he said.