Liberal Senate leader Nick Minchin has openly defied Malcolm Turnbull by declaring most of his party do not believe humans are responsible for global warming and by encouraging backbenchers to speak out against their leader's stance on the issue.
The Australian Financial Review reports that Senator Minchin's comments suggest there is little chance the opposition could accept a compromise with the government on an emissions trading scheme.
Asked what proportion of the Liberal party room believes humans are responsible for global warming, Senator Minchin said: "If the question is, do people believe or not believe that human beings are causing, are the main cause, of the planet warming, then I'd say a majority don't accept that position."
He put himself in that camp, declaring: "For the extreme Left it provides the opportunity to do what they've always wanted to do, to sort of deindustrialise the Western world. You know the collapse of communism was a disaster for the Left, and ... they embraced environmentalism as their new religion."
Senator Minchin's statements, aired on ABC television's Four Corners program last night, included an admission from opposition climate change spokesman Ian Macfarlane that he faced an uphill battle convincing his party room to accept any deal he cuts with Minister Penny Wong.
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