Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Of course it continues. The Leader of the Opposition gets the big calls wrong. In balancing the budget he had an $11 billion black hole. With the minerals resource rent tax—allowing Australians to share in the wealth generated from the minerals in our ground through better taxation arrangements for companies, better infrastructure and more superannuation—he got the big judgment call wrong. On the politics of grief, we saw his shadow minister out there trying to raise fear and concern in the Australian community, edging their way towards embracing a discriminatory immigration policy, breaking away from the Liberal tradition over decades. There was the Leader of the Opposition on TV endorsing the bitter politics of grief in order to stoke community concerns.

Then he comes into this place on carbon pricing, refusing to recognise that he should be acting in the national interest. He is not a Liberal in the tradition of Liberals past. John Howard understood that this issue needed to be grappled with. John Howard understood that. John Howard actually put out this report. He went to an election promising an emissions trading scheme but here is this hollow, bitter man. He is a man with no judgment, who never gets the big calls right. The Leader of the Opposition has gone to the Australian community and said that he believes in climate change; no, he rejects the science. He has gone to the Australian community and said, ‘Let’s back the carbon pollution reduction scheme,’ and then switched his vote. He has gone to the Australian community and said, ‘Why not just have a carbon tax; it would be simplest system?’ and now runs a fear campaign against it. The Leader of the Opposition is a man with no convictions in the national interest. He is a man who will only look for his political interests.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition: I believe increasingly Australians are disgusted by his negativity and revolted by his arrogance.

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