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Peter Costello voted very strongly against the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme

How Peter Costello voted compared to someone who believes that the federal government should introduce the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, which is a cap-and-trade system of emissions trading introduced by the Rudd Labor Government

Division Peter Costello Supporters vote Division outcome

4th Jun 2009, 11:40 AM – Representatives Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 - Consideration in Detail - Agree to the bill

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The majority voted in favour of a motion "That the bill, as amended, be agreed to."

This means that the MPs can now consider whether to read the bill for a third time and therefore pass it through House of Representatives and send it to the Senate for their consideration.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through here. ) In this case, the bill was subsequently read for a third time without further division.(See the Open Australia record of the third reading here. Read more about why divisions are not called on all questions in Parliament in our FAQ section. )

Background to the bill

The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 was introduced as part of a package of six bills to introduce the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.(Read more about the scheme on Wikipedia. ) This is an emission trading scheme designed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in an effort to address climate change. The scheme gives effect to Australia's obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

The design of the scheme has been criticised by the business community for threatening jobs and by environmentalists for not going far enough with its emission reduction targets.(Read more about these criticisms here.)

The six bills that were introduced as a package are called:

References

 No Yes (strong) Passed by a small majority

4th Jun 2009, 9:32 AM – Representatives Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 - Second Reading - Read a second time

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The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bill for a second time.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through here. ) This means that the majority agreed with the main idea of the bill, which was to introduce the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The MPs can now consider the bill in more detail.

Background to the bill

The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 was introduced as part of a package of six bills to introduce the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.(Read more about the scheme on Wikipedia. ) This is an emission trading scheme designed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in an effort to address climate change. The scheme gives effect to Australia's obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

The design of the scheme has been criticised by the business community for threatening jobs and by environmentalists for not going far enough with its emission reduction targets.(Read more about these criticisms here.)

The six bills that were introduced as a package are called:

References

 No Yes (strong) Passed by a small majority

4th Jun 2009, 9:27 AM – Representatives Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 - Second Reading - Defer consideration

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The majority voted in favour of a motion "That the words proposed to be omitted (Mr Turnbull’s amendment) stand part of the question." This means that Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull's amendment is unsuccessful and that the words of the motion that it tried to amend will remain unchanged.

The original motion was "That this bill be now read a second time."

Mr Turnbull's amendment was the following:

That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:—”the House defer consideration of the bill until the following have occurred:

(1) the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit at the end of this year has concluded;

(2) the Barack Obama administration in the United States has clarified its intentions in this area;

(3) the Government has referred its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) to the Productivity Commission so that it may conduct a six-month review to: (a) assess the national, regional and industry sectoral impact of the CPRS in light of the global financial crisis; (b) assess the economic impact of the CPRS in light of other countries either not imposing a price on carbon comparable to that proposed for Australia or imposing such a price after different assumed periods of delay; and (c) conceptually and empirically examine the relative costs and benefits (including emissions reductions) of the key alternative scheme designs against the CPRS; and

(4) the Productivity Commission’s reports on these topics have been publicly released.

Background to the bill

The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 was introduced as part of a package of six bills to introduce the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.(Read more about the scheme on Wikipedia. ) This is an emission trading scheme designed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in an effort to address climate change. The scheme gives effect to Australia's obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

The design of the scheme has been criticised by the business community for threatening jobs and by environmentalists for not going far enough with its emission reduction targets.(Read more about these criticisms here.)

The six bills that were introduced as a package are called:

References

 No Yes Passed by a small majority

How "voted very strongly against" is worked out

The MP's votes count towards a weighted average where the most important votes get 50 points, less important votes get 10 points, and less important votes for which the MP was absent get 2 points. In important votes the MP gets awarded the full 50 points for voting the same as the policy, 0 points for voting against the policy, and 25 points for not voting. In less important votes, the MP gets 10 points for voting with the policy, 0 points for voting against, and 1 (out of 2) if absent.

Then, the number gets converted to a simple english language phrase based on the range of values it's within.

No of votes Points Out of
Most important votes (50 points)      
MP voted with policy 0 0 0
MP voted against policy 2 0 100
MP absent 0 0 0
Less important votes (10 points)      
MP voted with policy 0 0 0
MP voted against policy 1 0 10
Less important absentees (2 points)      
MP absent* 0 0 0
Total: 0 110

*Pressure of other work means MPs or Senators are not always available to vote – it does not always indicate they have abstained. Therefore, being absent on a less important vote makes a disproportionatly small difference.

Agreement score = MP's points / total points = 0 / 110 = 0.0%.

And then