Turnbull's willingness to negotiate with the government was met with opposition from some Coalition MPs. By September 2009, "The Australian" was reporting that only 12 of the 59 Liberal backbenchers supported negotiations. On 18 October 2009, Turnbull fronted a meeting of Coalition MPs with a proposal to negotiate amendments to the government's ETS. This meeting supported his proposal, in what was seen as a test of Turnbull's leadership. However, there was speculation that a number of Coalition Senators would defy Turnbull and cross the floor of the Senate to vote against any ETS legislation. The ETS opponents argued that it would be premature for Parliament to pass ETS legislation before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change.