Bill Shorten says Labor 'won’t be bullied by Tony Abbott because he doesn’t accept the science of climate change'

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Labor will oppose Tony Abbott’s long promised repeal of the carbon price if the Coalition fails to implement an internationally linked emissions trading scheme.

The opposition has thrown down the political gauntlet on carbon pricing before the resumption of the new parliament this month, laying the groundwork for a partisan stand-off on Abbott’s signature election issue.

Shadow cabinet resolved on Friday to hold Labor’s election posture on carbon pricing.

Labor will allow the “tax” to go in favour of a cap on pollution and a floating carbon price from July 2014.

But the Coalition will reject the overture, favouring its own “direct action” scheme.

“The opposition will move amendments consistent with our pre-election commitments to terminate the carbon tax on the basis of moving to an effective emissions trading scheme,” the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

“However, if our amendments are not successful, we will oppose the government’s repeal legislation in line with our long held principled position to act on climate change to build a modern economy,” he said.

Shorten was asked by reporters whether the ALP would be better off politically rolling over and accepting Abbott’s mandate to abolish the carbon “tax”.

He replied Labor would “never be a rubber stamp for Tony Abbott”.

“We won’t be bullied by Tony Abbott because he doesn’t accept the science of climate change,” Shorten said.

He said the opposition believed it had an obligation to act in accordance with the science and also to set the economy up on the best footing to deal with the transitions associated with a changing climate.

Shorten said Labor was happy to allow repeal of the clean energy package provided a credible scheme for reducing carbon pollution was put in its place.

Labor’s posture suggests Abbott will have to wait until the new Senate is in place before securing the eventual repeal of Labor’s carbon package. Abbott is likely to have the numbers in the Senate for repeal after July 2014.

Shorten ducked a question on whether senators for the Palmer United Party had a conflict of interest in the repeal debate given the commercial interests of their party leader, mining magnate Clive Palmer. Shorten said he was certain all senators would “adhere to the laws of the land”.

Earlier, the shadow infrastructure minister, Anthony Albanese, told reporters he expected Palmer not to participate in votes where he might have a conflict of interest.

Albanese said Palmer was entitled to the presumption that he would act appropriately, but where there was a specific conflict of interest, he should not participate in a parliamentary vote. “I think that is a reasonable thing to expect,” Albanese said on Friday morning.

The amendments flagged on Friday by Shorten are yet to be drafted. The carbon pricing issue is yet to be formally endorsed by the Labor caucus, and views inside Labor about the merits of sticking with the election policy remain mixed.

Before Friday’s shadow cabinet meeting, Labor’s national secretary, George Wright, urged parliamentarians to stick with the election policy, which he said positioned the party of the right side of history.