The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme passed easily through the Labor-controlled House of Representatives this month.
The same nonsense speculation ran rampant in 2009 following the introduction of Rudd Labor's carbon pollution reduction scheme and the destruction of Malcolm Turnbull's leadership by Tony Abbott.
If Rudd had gone with his carbon pollution reduction scheme in place, then that would have been a huge boost to Australia's credibility in those negotiations".
But he announced that coaches and HGVs would be exempt from new standards to the Low Emissions Zone pollution charging scheme that are due in 2015.
Turnbull, when opposition leader, asked Macfarlane to negotiate with the Rudd government on the carbon pollution reduction scheme before Abbott seized the leadership in 2009.
Bernardi was a key player in the destabilisation campaign against Malcolm Turnbull in 2009 during the senate deliberations over the ill-fated carbon pollution reduction scheme.
Many members of the Greens, and the broader environmental movement, lamented "choosing the purity of impotence over the practical benefits of reasonable compromise" in opposing Rudd's carbon pollution reduction scheme as not ambitious enough, he said.
The Chinese capital imposed the highest tier of a four-colour smog warning system for four days starting on Saturday, the second time the red alert has been applied since Beijing established the pollution precaution scheme in 2013.
Obviously there is a political imperative for him to pursue this course, given that his elevation to the Liberal leadership was primarily based around opposition to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2009.
The comments received relatively little coverage, as they were caught up in the maelstrom of debate and coverage of the fallout of the Liberal leadership spill, the defeat of the carbon pollution reduction scheme legislation in the senate and the global disappointment in Copenhagen.
