Double dissolution trigger over clean energy
The federal government’s moves to abolish the carbon tax has taken a step backwards today and handed them a trigger to call a double dissolution election. The Greens and Labor joined forces for a second time to block a bill which would see the Clean Energy Finance Corporation abolished. The agency funds billions of dollars of programs promoting the development of clean energy technology.
It was established, along with a number of other programs, in a Labor/Greens deal to bring in the carbon tax under the Gillard government. Now the Abbott government’s Carbon Tax Repeal Bill contains a bunch of other bills designed to undo the suite of programs initiated by the Gillard government to address climate change.