The Courier-Mail
By: Renee Viellaris in Canberra
Voters could find out in 90 days whether they will be forced to an early election after yesterday's defeat of the Rudd Government's emissions trading scheme.
An emphatic cheer sounded in the Senate just after 11am when the Coalition and all non-Labor senators joined forces to trounce the Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
But the victory was bittersweet, with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong warning the Coalition to keep the cork on the champagne.
"This is not the end (and) the Government is not going to give up,'' Senator Wong shouted across the red chamber.
"We will bring this Bill back before the end of the year because it is the right thing do to.''
If the "friendless'' scheme is voted down again in November, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd can call a double dissolution election.
It comes as Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has given business groups about four weeks to provide feedback to his alternative ETS plan, modelled by Frontier Economics. It is understood he will use the model as a springboard to take amendments to his party room, which is split on climate change and an ETS.
There is also a further challenge for the Coalition, with the Climate Institute lobbying marginal electorates, starting in Queensland's most marginal seat, Bowman, held by Liberal Andrew Laming.
The Climate Institute will today launch a campaign that will also reach into regional Australia in a bid to end "scare campaigns'' associated with climate change mitigation.
But as environmental groups heralded the defeat of the Bill they argued was too weak, a frustrated business community pleaded with the major parties to negotiate for the sake of investment certainty.
The Nationals claimed they would not vote for any ETS that resembled Labor's plan.
"What we have now is a delay of a Bill . . . when it comes back again, we'll delay it again,'' Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce said.
"Anything (amendment) that nullifies or reduces the onerous aspects of what is being suggested, we would definitely want to be part of that. ''
Senior Liberal Nick Minchin called on the Government to put the Bill in "the deep freeze'' until after global climate change talks in Copenhagen.
However, Mr Turnbull continued to talk up the possibility of negotiating with the Government to find a compromise.