Labor And The Greens Throw Down, Dare Tony Abbott To Call An Early Election
You like elections, right? Good.
Tony Abbott’s been handed his first opportunity to call an early election after the Senate voted down the government’s push to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for the second time earlier today. Now that the same piece of legislation has fallen over twice, Abbott has the power to call a double dissolution election pretty much whenever he feels like it.
While it’s unlikely Abbott will actually pull the trigger given recent polls suggest his government and everything it’s doing are about as popular as Death itself, it’s a nice thought for anyone wistfully contemplating the prospect, like the 24,000 people who are already going to an imaginary federal election on Facebook.
You can lead a Prime Minister to a double dissolution trigger, but you can’t make him pull it.
— Paula Matthewson (@Drag0nista) June 18, 2014
WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, who we’ve vaguely mentioned once or twice before, has challenged Abbott to call a double dissolution election as soon as possible. ”If you really believe that renewable energy can’t deliver, then here is the double dissolution election trigger you’ve been waiting for. The world is starting to move, in fact parts of the world are well ahead of Australia, we’re lagging and the hour is late, so if its an election you want then bring it on,” Ludlam said in the Senate, presumably before flipping the bird and riding off on Abbott’s racing bike.
Tony and his bike, in better times.