Australia govt opens way to snap election
By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA, April 16 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has opened the way for a possible snap election by promising to reintroduce laws for a tax on alcoholic soft drinks already rejected by parliament. The centre-left government can call a double dissolution election in both houses of parliament if identical legislation is twice rejected by lawmakers, with a three-month gap between attempts.
Political analysts have speculated that Rudd, whose popularity is at near record levels ahead of scheduled elections in late 2010, could call an early poll to skirt the worst of an expected recession, peaking in the middle of next year.
Conservative rivals and a key independent swing vote senator on Thursday said they were still opposed to the "alcopops tax", which would impose a 70 percent increase on pre-mixed drinks.
While the tax is a relatively minor issue, a second defeat would hand Rudd a legal trigger to call a snap election and hopefully overcome an obstructionist Senate, dominated by the conservatives, five Greens and two independents.
"That is not our intention in pursuing this matter, but it is within our rights as a government," Health Minister Nicola Roxon told local radio on Thursday.
"We want to govern. We hope this measure will get through and of course it would not be a trigger if it was passed." she said.
Independent Senator Steve Fielding, whose vote helped sink the first alcopops bill in March, said he would reject the tax again unless Rudd agreed to ban alcohol advertising during sport broadcasts on television.
"The issue is that the Rudd government wants to make the Australian public believe that a tax on one product is going to address binge drinking. That is a joke," Fielding told state radio.
The government plans to reintroduce the "alcopop tax" draft laws into parliament after the May 12 budget, setting a trigger if the laws are rejected in the last week of June.
Rudd only narrowly won Senate support in March for changes to employment laws which had been the underpinning of his 2007 election victory, sweeping aside 11 years of conservative rule.
Rudd's Labor faces even bigger battles ahead to pass laws for a planned carbon Emissions Trading Scheme, or ETS, opposed by most lawmakers and business, and causing voter unease over the added costs for petrol and energy bills it will bring.
On Thursday, Rudd was due to meet Greens leader Bob Brown, whose party has five crucial Senate votes, to discuss Green demands for Labor to harden its planned 5-15 percent emission cut target by 2020.
Brown has previously warned Rudd that if he chooses to call a snap election, the Greens and independents would likely pick up extra seats, making the Senate even more unpredictable.
As well, Australian voters are cynical about early polls and typically punish sitting governments. But a vote in November -- a year early -- would allow Rudd to keep his timetable for carbon trade to begin on July 1, 2010.
(Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
