Cross-posted from www.climatenewswatch.com:

“So of course things are going to change. Of course this is all imperfect but I think my only point is the Liberal Party cannot be other than a mainstream party and when the mainstream has clearly gone past the tipping point on the desire to have a sensible approach to climate change, we just need to fit into a sensible approach.”

- Nick Greiner, Liberal Party member in conversation with ABC News host, Eleanor Hall.

Lot’s of news out of Australia this morning where it appears the Liberal Party (Australia’s mainstream conservative party) is going through an identity crisis over the issue of climate change and the introduction of a cap and trade system to regulate the production of greenhouse gas emissions.

Seems one Mr. Joe Hockey (that’s his name!), has the political opportunity to takeover the leadership of the party, but that if he does, he’ll be doing so thanks to political support from climate skeptics who are unhappy with their party’s current stand on climate change.

All of this is making more mainstream elements of the party nervous…they’re suggesting Mr. Hockey should wait until he can take the leadership on his own terms, without skeptic support, lest the Liberal Party (conservative remember) be painted with a climate skeptic brush and thus continue its years in the political wilderness – sent there in the first place because of the party’s do-nothing approach on climate change, something it tried to remedy ahead of the 2007 election that ultimately brought in popular Australian Labor Party leader, Kevin Rudd.

Does this story have any political implications for conservative movements in the United States or Canada?

You can read articles related to this growing story under the Opinion (Global) section of the Climate Newswatch front page.