Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That this House censures the Prime Minister for his refusal to tell the House and the Australian people how much taxpayers’ money has been spent on the ‘climate clever’ campaign and his cunning answers to questions asked in this House in order to avoid accountability to the Australian people.

The reason this censure motion has been moved goes to the heart of accountability in this parliament. It goes to whether the executive government is accountable to the parliament for moneys expended in general. But also there is a second question at stake here, and it is the whole essence of our democracy depending on, when we contest matters at an election, and in the lead-up to an election, whether we have a government in this country which, rather than arguing its own proposition to the people, instead systematically dips its hand into the pockets of Australian taxpayers, takes that money and expends it on one advertising campaign after the other in order to convince the Australian people that it is suddenly serious about any of the propositions it is putting forward.

We have seen it already on industrial relations. We are seeing it in a range of other areas as well. And we are about to see it on this question of climate change. We may well ask ourselves this question: why are the government now seeking to use taxpayers’ money to advance their case on climate change to the Australian people barely 3½ months before the election? The reason is: they stand condemned, for they have no credibility on climate change.

As a government which have now been in office for 11 years, where is their credibility? Where lie their credentials on the whole question of climate change and the associated challenge of water? Where do they lie? If you go back to the origin of this entire debate, which is the link between human activity on the one hand and climate change on the other, we began proceedings in the parliament at the beginning of this year with the Prime Minister standing opposite, at the dispatch box, and saying to the Australian people that there was no such connection. He said that the jury was still out, and he was reinforced by many of his ministerial colleagues. And they wonder why, in the events which have unfolded since then, the Australian people doubt whether they have any credibility and standing on this matter whatsoever. Out of your mouth, Prime Minister, at this dispatch box, you confessed your own deep and continuing scepticism about the connection between human activity, greenhouse gas emissions and therefore climate change. And the Prime Minister wonders why the Australian people doubt him. Well, do you know something, Prime Minister? The Australian people look people in the eye and they know when they are being fair dinkum. You have spent 11 years not being fair dinkum on this—

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