Carbon tax repeal: Clive Palmer confirms PUP support as bills to scrap tax pass Lower House

Updated

Clive Palmer has supported the Government in its renewed bid to repeal the carbon tax after a key amendment was "reworked" and legislation reintroduced to Parliament.

Last week the Palmer United Party (PUP) skewered the Coalition's attempts to scrap the tax, claiming the Coalition had "double-crossed" them over a condition that power savings be passed on to consumers.

But Mr Palmer says the legislation and the amendment is now satisfactory, voting with the Government when the bills passed the Lower House on Monday evening after abstaining in previous votes.

"Palmer United supports the bill and the amendment that will be brought forward," he told Parliament before the vote.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt spent the weekend refining the amendment and Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Question Time there had been widespread consultation over the legislation in the past few days.

"The matter has been reworked over the weekend and I am confident that we have got the balance right," Mr Abbott said.

Mr Hunt reintroduced the legislation for the third time to the House of Representatives on Monday. Previously Mr Abbott had led the Government's argument in the debate.

Mr Hunt said he was confident businesses would do the right thing and pass on all the savings.

"The changes to the main repeal bill balance new compliance obligations with the need to ensure that households and business customers benefit - already strong protections are being further strengthened," he told Parliament.

Mr Palmer also told Parliament that PUP senators would move later this week to set up the framework of an emissions trading scheme, that would come into effect only when Australia's major trading partners put an ETS in place.

"Our senators plan to move in the Senate an ETS dependent upon our trading partners also acting in that regard," he said.

"We must stand on the right side of history."

Labor leader Bill Shorten has pointed out it is seven years - almost to the day - since former Liberal prime minister John Howard announced his plans to introduce an emissions trading scheme.

"But this Liberal Party, this once great party of the free market and free enterprise, wants no part of this market solution," he said.

"They want to tear everything down that has been built. They want to replace it with an amateur, ill-conceived, centralist, Soviet-style voucher system that will give the nation's biggest polluters great wads of taxpayer money to keep polluting."

Cost of leg of lamb debated in Question Time

In Question Time, the Opposition targeted previous Coalition promises and claims about the impact of the carbon tax on the cost of living.

"Before the election the Minister for Agriculture claimed a leg of lamb would cost $100 because of the carbon price," Labor backbencher Pat Conroy asked, prompting laughter on both Government and Opposition benches.

"I note that Coles online is selling a 2.2-kilogram leg of lamb for $26.40 - Prime Minister, how much less will this leg of lamb cost by the end of this week?"

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop called for silence, with a warning that MPs could be ejected from the house "to enjoy a cutlet".

Mr Abbott said, under Labor, a $100 leg of lamb would still be a possibility.

"Under members opposite, the carbon tax will just go up and up and up and eventually who knows? Maybe we would have had the $100 leg of lamb," he told Parliament.

"But Madam Speaker, I am inviting members opposite to do the right thing by the lamb consumers and producers of Australia and vote to terminate the carbon tax."

The amended carbon tax bills passed through the House of Representatives just before 6:00pm (AEST).

PUP senator Jacqui Lambie emerged from Monday morning's PUP meeting saying she "believed" her party was satisfied with the Government's position on repealing both the carbon and mining taxes.

"So if there's no dirty tricks going on, there's no reason why both these shouldn't be repealed this week," she said.

Two weeks ago, Mr Palmer announced he would back the repeal bills if key conditions were met, including a legal requirement for power companies to pass on to consumers any savings they made from the repeal of the tax.

Companies that failed to pass on savings within the first year of the repeal would be forced to pay a penalty of 250 per cent of the savings to the Commonwealth.

But the amendment was not circulated to senators last week because the Clerk of the Senate had advised it could be unconstitutional - and needed to first pass the House of Representatives.

Mr Palmer accused the Coalition of "double-crossing" his party over the change and withdrew PUP support for the repeal.

Mr Palmer on Monday confirmed he had words with Senate officials last week when his party's amendments to the carbon tax were not circulated, but denies he shouted at an official.

"No, I've got witnesses. The truth about the matter is I told her she was wrong and she had no right to do it," he said.

"I didn't do that in a raised voice. I just said that and I made it very clear to her that if she didn't do it we'd be going to the High Court to get the appropriate injunction," he said.

The president of the Senate, Stephen Parry, is not commenting on reports that an official complaint has been made about Mr Palmer's behaviour.

Nationals whip criticises 'less than acceptable' behaviour of minor party senators

Government backbencher and Nationals whip Mark Coulton has described the behaviour of minor party senators as "less than acceptable", especially to voters.

"I think if we're not careful the entire country will suffer from the dysfunction of the Senate," he said.

"This is not some sort of game, this is not some sort of a popularity contest - this is the running of the country."

Another Government backbencher has blamed his own party's leadership.

"Prime Ministers and leaders don't always understand fully how the Senate works," Queensland LNP Senator Ian Macdonald told The World Today.

"There does often seem to be a lack of connection between the leadership group and those of us who have been there for a while and understand the procedures of the Senate.

"The issues last week were unfortunate and some of them could've been avoided I thought."

While the legislation now moves to the Senate, one bill that would abolish future income tax cuts has been omitted.

That measure was the first to be rejected by the Senate last week and the Government's failure to bring it back to the Lower House indicates it has not been able to secure enough votes.

The tax cuts were brought in under Labor to compensate for increased household costs and were due to come in for low-income earners on July 1, 2015.

If it succeeds in abolishing the carbon tax, the Government will move to repeal the mining tax and hopes that too will go through this week.

Meanwhile the Government appears to have quietly shelved plans to reform the way the Senate is elected.

Its failure last week to have the carbon tax repealed by the new crossbench shows the volatility - and the necessity of support - of the new crossbench, and the ABC understands the Government has lost its appetite to push ahead with the changes.

Topics: federal-parliament, climate-change, environment, clive-palmer, government-and-politics, federal-government, environmental-policy, australia, act

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