Shortly

So the Labor party is not going to oppose the Coalition’s removal of the Carbon Tax but it will oppose its Direct Action plans.

It is what I feared; all they have learnt from their electoral loss is that Abbott’s very cynical negative approach to opposition actually seems to work. This is going to be a spiral, downwards.

The political thinking behind this move is this.

One, Labor won’t oppose the removal of their Carbon Tax despite the fact that they know, of all the options, it makes the most sense.They will say Abbott has a mandate to remove to it due to his election win and they don’t want to get in the way of the people. This will remove the grounds for a double dissolution on this issue.

Two, they will oppose Direct Action on the ground that it is ineffective and inefficient, and then they can say Abbott isn’t doing anything about climate change. Calling a double dissolution election because they can’t get Direct Action plan through would be a very unpopular move for the Libs (on one hand you can’t claim there is no climate change but then think its important enough to call an election on the issue!). In fact, Abbott, if he doesn’t get these plans through, will likely do nothing and then be exposed to this at the next election.

Despite Rupert’s media coverage it looks highly likely that Abbott is going to get hung by all the stupid things he said and did in order to get to the Lodge.