Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull put the Opposition back into the debate on emissions trading yesterday by saying the Opposition would try to change the Government's scheme instead of blocking it.
Mr Turnbull said the Opposition would seek amendments to ETS legislation in August if the Government refused to delay the vote to next year.
Mr Turnbull said modelling commissioned by the Opposition and independent Senator Nick Xenophon would put the coalition in a position to offer a policy alternative when Parliament resumed in August.
"It will enable us to come back with amendments that we would propose to the legislation," he told Network Ten.
"If the Government doesn't accept them, then, of course, we'll have to work out what happens next."
Mr Turnbull had argued previously for a postponement of the scheme until the result of global climate change talks in Copenhagen in December and the design of a US scheme were known.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said Mr Turnbull's only policy to date had been to stall.
"Now Mr Turnbull has realised that time is running out on this tactic," Senator Wong said "When Mr Turnbull can unite his party on climate change, we look forward to receiving his amendments."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the US vote in favour of a cap-and-trade carbon scheme should be a wake-up call for the coalition.
"To those who are delaying action in the Australian Parliament - look at what is happening in the United States," he said. "And rather than voting not to vote, which is what the Liberals have done here, let's get on with the business of acting and getting things done."
In the latest Nielsen poll, 65 per cent of voters supported the Government's ETS.
