Australia carbon emissions law hit by opposition revolt

Kevin Rudd's deal with the Liberals is in doubt

The Australian government's plans to enact a law for an emissions trading scheme have been thrown into chaos.

A revolt within the opposition Liberal Party could overturn an agreement reached earlier in the week with the Liberal leader, Malcolm Turnbull.

He agreed to pass the measure through the upper house of parliament where the government does not have a majority.

But opposition climate change sceptics have vowed to scupper the legislation and have challenged his leadership.

Election prospect

With parliament about to take its long Christmas and summer break, the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had wanted to enact the legislation creating an emissions trading scheme by the end of this week.

It was keen to enshrine the scheme in law before the Copenhagen climate change conference.

Earlier in the week, the government reached a deal with Mr Turnbull that would have met that deadline.

But this prompted a revolt among climate change sceptics in the Liberal Party that has now placed the legislation in jeopardy.

There have been mass resignations from the opposition front bench, and the party is in open and angry rebellion.

One leading climate change sceptic and senior party figure, Tony Abbott, says he will challenge Mr Turnbull for the leadership on Monday.

Malcolm Turnbull has argued that the party would consign itself to political oblivion if it refused to advance policies aimed at tackling climate change.

But that argument has not carried any weight with a strong rump in his party who reject the scientific case that man is contributing to global warming.

If the measure fails to pass the Senate, the government would have a trigger to call an election - an election they would be expected to win by a very big margin.