Nationals split from Liberals on ETS policy

At least we can still put our collective faith in the Nationals, the only party left in Australia (apart from the recently formed Climate Sceptics) to see through the IPCC spin. The Nationals have confirmed they will continue to oppose an ETS, splitting from the Liberal policy of negotiation with the government.

Nationals sources confirmed the plan yesterday as the party's Senate leader, Barnaby Joyce, hardened his opposition to an ETS, and insisted his party had a right to its own policy for the sake of diversity and proper representation of voters.

Senator Joyce's comments came as other senior Nationals sources said there was growing frustration within the junior Coalition partner over the Liberal Party's preparedness to work with them on policy development.

Yesterday's release of a Frontier Economics research paper proposing an ETS with lower impacts on electricity prices than the Rudd government's proposed scheme highlighted the policy differences between the Liberals and the Nationals.

While the Liberals are open to negotiation with the government over an ETS, the Nationals have made it clear for months that they would require major and fundamental change to even consider supporting a scheme.

The government, on the other hand, are showing no sign of compromise, if Penny Wong's poker-faced performance on ABC this morning is anything to go by.

Read it here.