Another week goes by, and still no mention of the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill in the Business Statement. Hot Topic speculates that the government needs the support of NZ First, and they're right - with United Future refusing to back it, ACT in deep denial, and National having no incentive to help this close to the election, the government's only possible majority is with the Greens and NZ First (well, they could use GPM plus Taito Phillip Field, but the latter is pretty unlikely, even if they were inclined to pursue such a path). And with NZ First tending towards denial (or at least not giving a damn, because they're old), that is going to be a very tough compromise to negotiate.
The government is almost out of time on this. The next sitting week is a writeoff, so that leaves just four sitting weeks to go until Parliament expires. And if they can't do it by then, then we'll be looking at a further delay while National procrastinates and then guts the scheme for the benefit of its big business donors.
