Bit Bucket

There’s a bunch of exciting political foofaraw going on in Australia.  My friend Oli is dishing the details in what’s happening.  It’s a fascinating read, and it’s good to know about other countries’ internal fights, right?

oliyoung:

Labor (left wing, more left than your Democrats) are in power, and they control the lower house (called House of Reps here too). Kevin Rudd’s the Prime Minister and leader of the Labor Party.

They’re trying to pass what we call the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (it’s an emission trading scheme), what you’re referring to as a “Cap & Trade”. It’s passed the lower house because Labor has the numbers. Naturally, Labor wants to go to Copenhagen having signed the ETS.

Labor don’t have control of the upper house (called the Senate here too). They hold 32 seats, while the opposition (a coalition of Liberal - they’re a conservative party, despite their name and more left than your Republicans, and Nationals, about the same) both hold 37 seats, while the other 7 seats are held by the Greens (LEFT wing party), Family First (CONSERVATIVE party) and an independent. Right. So to pass the ETS in the Senate Labor need a majority. The Family First senator doesn’t support it, so Labor need the opposition (Coalition) to support it to pass it.

The leader of the opposition is Malcolm Turnbull. He’s almost more left-wing than our PM, despite leading a moderately right wing party (curious fact, he was once courted by the Labor party). Like, he’s a Republican (ie wants to ditch the Monarchy) in a party that’s traditionally Monarchist. But the dude has money, and influence, and is an economic liberal, free market etc.

He’s been dealing with the Labor Party to pass the ETS, and last week came up with a deal. Problem is, his party is full of climate change skeptics, and they don’t support it. You know the deal, too expensive, will cost jobs, probably don’t need it.

Yesterday he announced that the Coalition would be supporting the ETS through the Senate, despite some in his party strongly disagreeing (heated exchange was the phrase bandied around). He also said a few months ago that he wouldn’t lead a party that had a policy of no-action on climate change, so you know, he’s staked his political life on this.

So today, one of the factions of the party called his bluff. Tony Abbott, ULTRA right wing conservative, and powerful guy, up and quit because of the policy, which lead to five other members of the Liberals quitting the “front bench” (essentially Shadow Secretaries). This is pretty much a death knell for Turnbull’s career. Tomorrow someone will probably call a leadership “spill” and vote for a new leader.

There’s a whole bunch of Australian political history I’ve missed out here, but that’s about the crux of it.