Malcolm Turnbull to face leadership challenge

Federal Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull will face a leadership challenge from Liberal MP Kevin Andrews at a special Coalition party meeting to be held at 1pm AEDST.

Leadership tensions have exploded over Turnbull’s handling of the negotiations with the Government over the carbon pollution reduction scheme.

Turnbull reportedly angered many Coalition members when he announced last night that the Opposition would support the Government’s revised emissions trading scheme, despite not having the complete support of his party.

“I am the leader. I will make the call,” Turnbull told reporters last night.

But former Liberal Minster Kevin Andrews has now issued a leadership challenge to Turnbull, declaring he wants to “reflect the clear view” of Liberal party members and supporters on the issue of climate change.

“There was palpable anger at the end of last night about the way this has been handled.”

“The majority of my colleagues had the view that either this legislation should be rejected or it should at least be delayed until we know what the rest of the world is doing.”

“This will make the GST pale into insignificance in terms of its impost on this country. It will also have a significant impact on Australia’s competitiveness. “

Andrews, who has been in Parliament for almost 20 years, claims to have the numbers to support his move to block the ETS scheme.

Andrews wants a secret ballot on the leadership spill, rather than a show of hands. He claims a show of hands vote could have a “very different outcome”.

Andrews is perhaps best known as one of the architects of the Howard Government’s WorkChoices legislation.

SmartCompany will continue to monitor the Liberal leadership crisis and provide updates throughout the afternoon.