Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

They got a mandate not to introduce a carbon tax, as the member for Casey so rightly says. They received a mandate not to introduce a carbon tax because the Prime Minister promised six days before the election that there would be no carbon tax under any government she led. A few days before the election the Treasurer insisted that the opposition was being ludicrous and that the government would never introduce a carbon tax and the Prime Minister the day before the election said, 'I rule it out,' in answer to a question about whether she would introduce a carbon tax.

The government went to the election and received a mandate not to introduce a carbon tax and the Australian people in their goodwill and infinite goodness took them on their word that they would not introduce a carbon tax. Yet here we are in mid-September debating the introduction of a carbon tax. The Australian people have every reason to feel utterly lied to and short-changed by a government that deceived them during the election campaign.

See this speech in context