Malcolm with a sting in his tail

I think that those Neanderthal, knuckle-dragging, climate change denying, inbred Libs may have made a tactical error in allowing Malcolm Turnbull to retire to the backbench after losing party leadership by just one vote.

Here is the first evidence from Turnbull's own blog:

2 December 2009

Today the Senate rejected, for the second time, the Government's emissions trading scheme legislation.

This is a very disappointing result, contrary to the national interest and the interest of the Liberal Party.

Australia needs to get on with the business of cutting its greenhouse gas emissions. We recognised that in Government and started legislating for an ETS. As Mr Howard has observed, the Rudd Government's ETS is very similar to the one we, as Liberals, took to the last election.

We had a number of objections to the legislation and back in October the Party Room approved us proposing amendments to the Government which were, in large measure, accepted by the Government. The Party Room last week accepted the Shadow Cabinet's recommendation that an agreement be reached between the Opposition and Government to pass the amended bill.

These amendments would have protected thousands of jobs and ensured Australia's ETS was more environmentally effective. For more on that agreement click here.

Since then of course there has been both a change of Leader of the Opposition and a decision to renege on the agreement with the Government. Hence the rejection of the legislation.

I set out my arguments for supporting the amended legislation last Thursday night and the transcript of that press conference is here.

Next destructive storm of the season up in Australia's far north, first 2009-10 east coast low to hit the NSW Northern Rivers, next catastrophic bushfire in rural Victoria, first heatwave deaths of the Christmas season in South Australia, first little town to run out of water at the height of this summer, first unseasonable flash flooding in metropolitan areas in the next six months - and every eye will turn accusingly (if somewhat irrationally) towards all those Lib pollies who did in the ETS. Only Turnbull be will Teflon-coated and won't he enjoy turning the knife on his former underlings!
Meanwhile I just hope that Abbott doesn't own a cat!

Turnbull pic from The Age