Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

We need a question time so that we can consider these issues before the House so that the parlia­ment can properly scrutinise this carbon tax, so that the parliament can properly scrutinise the important issue that is before it. We have the situation where this is the biggest economic change in the history of this country and they are running from scrutiny. They have been running from scrutiny for days. We had a situation where the Prime Minister was so gutless that earlier in the week she said she would announce the details of the carbon tax, but she would not announce them until such time as the parliament had risen. That is not acceptable. It is absolutely not acceptable—that we would have the parliament rising before proper scrutiny of this important matter.

The Australian people deserve better. They deserve a real Prime Minister. They do not deserve Bob Brown and they certainly do not deserve the current Prime Minister, a Prime Minister who has proved to be running an incompetent government, a Prime Minister who has proved to be denying the opportunity for this parliament to scrutinise this very important issue, an issue which is front and centre in the minds of the Australian people. We see in the media report after report of businesses facing great difficulty. We see reports of families struggling with the cost of living. It is real and this government is in denial. It is in denial of the needs of the Australian people. It is in denial of the needs of Australian families for relief from cost-of-living pressures.

We have a government that is intent on pursuing its own interests. We have a government that is intent on avoiding scrutiny and that is why the standing orders need to be suspended. We need the parliament to resume on Monday so the Prime Minister can face the music and be duly scrutinised in a timely matter—not in a few weeks time, but on Monday. The Australian people deserve better than a Prime Minister who is running from scrutiny at every turn, a Prime Minister who is failing to give parliament the opportunity to properly consider this very important economic change, a change that is going to have widespread repercussions for the whole economy. (Time expired)

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