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

Much worse under the government’s carbon price, because making electricity more expensive makes everything more expensive. Making fuel more expensive makes everything more expensive, because a modern economy simply cannot work without electricity and fuel. Power and transport are the foundations of a modern economy. Power and transport are the foundations of our standard of living. Power and transport are the foundations of our way of life, and they want to undermine those foundations. They will make everything worse.

It is no wonder that the chief executive officer of one of Australia’s largest manufacturing companies, BlueScope Steel, said that this government’s carbon tax is nothing short of economic vandalism, and he told the truth when he said that this government seems to hate the manufacturing industry. It does not understand the manufacturing industry of this country and it is trying to destroy it by driving jobs offshore, by destroying employment in this country, by sending jobs and employment to countries where they are not guilty of the kind of economic vandalism of which this government is so obviously guilty.

Why does this government hate the coal industry so much? What is wrong with the coal industry? Why does this government want to ensure that so many regions of this country—the Illawarra, the Hunter, Gippsland, the Bowen Basin, Central Queensland—are destroyed? Why does this government want to destroy the economic foundation of those communities? Why does this government want to take away the livelihoods of those struggling families? Why suck the life out of the economy of regional Australia by putting the coal industry under a handicap that will surely kill it? Why does the government want to do this?

This government must explain, and this opposition will make this government explain day in day out, moment in moment out, all the time until the next election, because this change should not be happening without the opportunity for a full consideration by the Australian people. The most shameful thing about what the government are now proposing to do is that they have tried to hoodwink people, to hide this from the Australian people. That is the only possible explanation. There is no other possible explanation for the statements of the Prime Minister, who said, ‘There will be no carbon tax under any government I lead; I rule out a carbon tax,’ and the statements of the Treasurer, sitting opposite, who said, ‘It’s just a hysterical allegation.’ Well, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, I am afraid that it has come true and, if you want to have any shred of integrity left, you have got to explain to this House, to the people and, above all else, to yourself why you made that statement. Come on, Treasurer. Are you a man? If you are, give us the explanation.

And while you are dreaming up the explanation, let me tell the House that there is a better way. Let me say it, lest it be questioned by members opposite: climate change is real; mankind does make a contribution; we should take sensible precautions against the risks of climate change. And that is exactly what the coalition are doing with our practical and effective plan to take direct action. We will actually reduce emissions. We will not make our way of life prohibitively expensive in the hope—the vain hope, I suspect—that people will suddenly decide that they cannot drive and cannot use their air conditioners. We will not whack a $13 billion tax on the economy, and that is just for starters. We will spend up to a billion dollars a year; we will plant more trees; we will get better soil; we will use smarter technology; and we will make our industrial processes, our power generation and our farming more efficient and more effective. We will reduce emissions in sensible ways that will provide all sorts of additional environmental benefits. That is what we will do. That is a better way and, above all else, it is a more honest way.

That is the plan we had before the election. That is the plan that we had after the election. That is the plan we have. That is the plan we will continue to have, because the most important thing of all is the trust that the Australian people should be able to repose in their leaders. I understand—we all understand—that sometimes people change their minds. But, if they are honest and they really have changed their minds, they should take the new position to an election. Have a bit of guts, have a bit of honesty—and that is what you should do, Deputy Prime Minister.

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