Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This is the truth: we have a Prime Minister who simply cannot be trusted on anything at all. I hear ‘Just ask Kevin.’ The promise not to introduce a carbon tax was actually the second most solemn pledge that this Prime Minister made in the course of the last election. The most solemn pledge, perhaps, was the pledge to the former Prime Minister: ‘I’m with you, Kevin. I back you all the way, Kevin. I even back you on your emissions trading scheme until it all gets too hard, and I’ll stab you in the back on that. I’ll stab you in the back on the leadership and I will ultimately stab the Australian people in the back with this broken promise.’ She ratted on Kevin Rudd and now she has betrayed the Australian people. Shame on this Prime Minister. And we know she does feel some shame. She would not say the word ‘tax’ in carbon tax in her press conference, but the shame is starting to get to her, because she just half admitted that it was going to be a tax. ‘In effect, a tax’ she says! In total reality, Prime Minister, a tax—a hit—on the Australian people’s standard of living.

This is a prime minister who has raised breaking promises to an art form. This is a prime minister who holds the world record for breaking promises. Today she has broken her promise not to introduce a carbon tax. Already she has broken her promise to have a citizens assembly. This was going to happen before the election. That lasted until the day—it did not even last until she was confirmed as Prime Minister—she needed the vote of one Green in this parliament. There was the East Timor detention centre that was definitely going to happen before the election but will never, ever happen after the election. There were the onshore detention centres that would never, ever have happened before the election and are now being built after the election. There was the Murray-Darling Basin Plan that she was adopting sight unseen before the election but running away from at million miles an hour after the election.

There was the hospital takeover. Remember the hospital takeover! After climate change, that was the second greatest moral challenge of our time. She was definitely doing that before the election—completely dumped after the election because she was beaten by the Liberal state premiers. She says this is the year of decision and delivery. The only decision that she has made this year is not to deliver on her election promises. This year will be the year of backflips and broken promises from this Prime Minister—this inadequate, disappointing Prime Minister—leading a government that has broken every promise that it has ever made.

What is her justification for this assault on the cost of living of every Australian, this $300 a year hit on power prices, this 6½c a litre hit on petrol prices? What is her justification? Oh! The parliament changed. There is one member of parliament right up the back there who said before the election—he is not actually here now—‘I will support a carbon tax.’ Every other member—and I accept the Prime Minister’s whispering—of this parliament went to the election ruling out a carbon tax. Every single member on this side ruled out a carbon tax. Every member on that side ruled out a carbon tax. I say to the Prime Minister: by what tortured logic, by what bizarre arithmetic, does one vote trump 149?

This is truly the weirdest justification that we have ever seen. The only explanation for the Prime Minister’s backflip is that the real Prime Minister of this country is in fact Senator Bob Brown. This is a prime minister who now has almost no credibility left. She has never seen a tax she did not like. She has never seen a tax she would not hike. This is a prime minister who has let down the Australian people no more so than today. (Time expired)

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