‘Once people realise just how cynical the government has been behind the scenes they will understand why it’s essential … to vote it down,’ Greens senator Christine Milne told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
Without her party’s support, Labor will be forced to rely on opposition votes to secure its climate change bills passage through parliament.
The Liberals have flagged they want the legislation deferred until after global climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year and the Nationals don’t want a bar of it at all.
‘What we have now got is (Opposition Leader) Malcolm Turnbull, in trying to keep them together, delaying having to make a decision on it until after Copenhagen,’ Senator Milne said.
The Greens say they won’t support a legislative delay.
‘What we want to do is get a vote on this as soon as possible: it’s bad legislation.’
Veteran Nationals senator Ron Boswell, a fierce opponent of emissions trading, admitted the legislation had the power to divide the coalition.
‘The National party won’t be supporting it,’ he said.
‘Whether it drives a stake through the coalition … is a question for the future.’
It would be cowardly for the Nationals to back away from their long-standing position on emissions trading because the party was scared of causing coalition disunity.
‘If you run away from things that are so reprehensible, so destroying and you vote for them, then that in my opinion is cowardice,’ Senator Boswell said.
The coalition parties are expected to hammer out a more formal response during a joint parties meeting in Canberra on Tuesday.
But the Nationals are in no mood to back the legislation, saying the government needs to go back to the drawing board.
‘Our position is: No,’ Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce told ABC Radio when asked whether his party would back the planned scheme.