Mr. Speaker, Nick Taylor, a Liberal senator and chair of the Senate's energy and environment committee, says that political donations by the oil and coal lobby to candidates to succeed the Prime Minister are already paying dividends. According to him, these donations are creating an “irresistible force to do nothing” within the government which, not so long ago, was determined to ratify the Kyoto protocol in 2002.
Will the Deputy Prime Minister tell us whether the pressure from ministers enjoying the support of this lobby is the reason his government is taking a second look at ratifying the Kyoto protocol?