With a pledge of critical support from the Greens to Labor - and a whack while doing it - the Coalition have become inconsequential on climate change action.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
At least for now. For it might be over-egging the opposition's embrace of opposition, but there is an argument there could be some sort of long game going on.
The Greens are still going to ride Labor over banning new coal and gas projects, but it will support in both houses the bill to enshrine the Albanese government's signature 2030 emissions reduction target of 43 per cent.
Deal done? Not so fast.
Despite government confidence, the 39th vote in the Senate is not locked in. Neither independent ACT Senator David Pocock nor the Jacqui Lambie Network senators have confirmed they are definitely on board with the government's climate bill. And both Senator Pocock and Senator Lambie want to negotiate. The former Wallabies captain flagged this the day before in his first speech.
"I intend to use that [crossbench] power in the best interests of the people in the ACT," he said.
He also said he wanted to end the climate wars and win them.
READ MORE:
And in giving the support on Wednesday, Greens Leader Adam Bandt was not acting as a team player while getting on board, accusing the government of "bringing a bucket of water to a house fire" and promising to not let up over new coal and gas projects.
"Labor might be holding out now, but their position is ultimately untenable, and they can't go to upcoming climate summits, vowing to open new coal and gas projects and expect to be taken seriously," he said.
But back to the Coalition. Opposition leader Peter Dutton was never going to back the bill, but it is now just a fact that the Coalition has dealt itself out of the picture and the bill is now regarded as "Dutton proof".
The Minister for Climate Change Chris Bowen praised the Labor-Greens deal as a moment of saying "no more" to more than a decade of climate inaction in Australia.
"Today the Australian parliament says we have a government that gets it and a parliament that gets it and today parliamentarians of good will and good faith have come together to do something good for our country," he told Parliament.
And to the Coalition, there was no generosity.
"This party which gave Australia 22 energy policies over a decade and couldn't land one, doesn't want to land another one now, even from opposition," he said to roars from the opposition benches.
It is no coincidence that suddenly now in opposition that the Coalition is looking to nuclear energy. It never went there in government and it is pretty close to the ultimate in wedge politics - a far away bogeyman, unsupported, unrealistic and, for many, too risky.
Then the opposition focuses the bulk of its questions in question time to the government's "Powering Australia" election policy to cut power prices by $275 by 2025. It is a cost of living frame which the government delights in batting back to what the opposition did - or did not do - a very short time ago in government. There is a time limit on the blame game and on the 2025 pledge as well.
The Dutton opposition has now flagged it will advance on its existing 27-28 per cent emissions target before the next election. While that cooks, it will be hoping the relationship between the government at the Greens cooks as well.
The first big test of the 47th Parliament is in play.