Carbon-tax opponents defeated in Australian Parliament

Jun 22, 2011, 9:21 GMT

Sydney - A push by conservatives for a national plebiscite on government plans for a carbon tax to combat climate change was voted down in Australia's Parliament Wednesday.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott argued that people deserved a say on whether there ought to be a tax on carbon because the ruling Labor Party made an election promise last year not to impose one.

But Abbott failed to get enough independent members of Parliament to support the move and the motion failed with a tie vote in the Senate.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the plebiscite plan a stunt because the result would not be binding.

Gillard was expected to announce the price the government would put on carbon in the coming weeks.

The government's chief climate adviser, Ross Garnaut, said at a public meeting Tuesday night that the climate change debate in Australia had become extremely bitter.

'We do have a bitter public discussion of this matter at the moment with a rancour that's unusual, in fact unprecedented, in my experience in Australian public policy discussion,' Garnout said.