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

Mr Speaker, I seek leave to move a motion of censure in the government.

Leave not granted.

Mr Speaker, I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would enable the Leader of the Opposition to move forthwith:

That this House censure the Prime Minister for betraying the Australian people with the introduction of the world’s biggest carbon tax when she said, five days before the last election, in a phrase that will haunt her to her political grave, “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead” and:

(1) the 72 Labor members of parliament that betrayed their electorates by voting for a carbon tax today stand condemned; and

(2) all members supporting this toxic tax are duly warned that the Coalition will pursue every vote in every seat to give the Australian people their say on this carbon tax at the next election which has been denied to them today by a Prime Minister who has deceived them, and a Labor Party that has forgotten about families, abandoned workers and become a risk to our future prosperity.

Standing orders do need to be suspended because today this parliament has witnessed the unseemly spectacle of a government cheering itself for breaking its own election promise. We have witnessed the unseemly spectacle of government ministers celebrating a betrayal. They celebrated their betrayal with a kiss. This will be remembered as the day the Gillard government broke faith with the Australian people and gave itself a round of applause for doing so. Shame on this government!

We know because we talk to people, we know because we listen to people and we know because we hear people in this very parliament that people are angry because they have not been treated with respect by this government. The people of Australia were lied to by this government before the election and they have not been listened to by this government since the election. This Prime Minister should not just say sorry; she should resign. That is what this Prime Minister should do.

We have heard a lot from the government today about their being on the right side of history. What an incredibly arrogant presumption from a Prime Minister and a government who are on the wrong side of truth. That is the problem with this government. If the Prime Minister had any integrity and conception of what happens in the real world, she would know that you cannot build a decent future based on lies, that you cannot build a political system that is respected and has integrity by deceiving the Australian people. That is exactly what the government have done today.

We heard from the Deputy Prime Minister and from the Treasurer that this was a great reform in the Labor tradition. I do not know about the great tradition of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating whose reforms involved lower taxes and less regulation. This is a reform in the tradition of the Rudd-Gillard government; a reform in the tradition of pink batts which catch fire in people's roofs; a reform in the tradition of overpriced school halls; digging up people's streets; the National Broadband Network, the greatest white elephant of all time; and Medicare Gold, the one great monument to the policy thinking of the current Prime Minister. The Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has said that this is a Labor reform through and through. That was the phrase he used. The Australian people fully understand what this is. They understand that this is socialism dressed up. It is socialism dressed up as environmentalism.

Standing orders must be suspended because this is the only appropriate way to mark the significance of this day. It is betrayal day because this is the day when the Prime Minister has consummated her broken promise, the broken promise that will haunt her to the grave. We all remember what it is and let it echo around this chamber again and again: 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' That is what she said and that is precisely the opposite of what she has done. When this Prime Minister made that statement she did not just say it for herself; she said it for every single Labor member of this parliament.

We see them all up there, hanging their heads in shame. The member for Braddon is hanging his head in shame and the member for Reid is hanging his head in shame, as well they should. The member for Moreton, that man of principle yesterday, who yesterday was so determined not to betray his electorate, marched into this parliament and betrayed his electorate today. He was not prepared to betray his electorate to protect the Prime Minister's job, but he did betray his electorate today and he did betray the job hopes of all his constituents.

This is a bad tax. It is a bad tax based on a lie. It is very interesting that today we put some questions to the Prime Minister and she could not answer two important points. There is no compensation for small business. The 1½ million small businesses in this country are going to be left in the lurch by this bad tax based on a lie. She also had no answer for the forgotten families of Australia, some of whom were referred to by the member for McPherson in her question today. These are the families who will be out of pocket under her carbon tax and they will be out of pocket even on the government's own figures. Even on the government's own figures, some three million Australian households will be worse off. And we know just how untrustworthy this government is with figures. We know these figures cannot be believed. We know that, when the government says power prices will go up by 10 per cent, that is just the start. They will go up by 10 per cent with a carbon tax of $23 a tonne; just how much will they go up by when a carbon tax reaches $131 a tonne, as it will under the government's own figures?

Mr Albanese interjecting—

The minister at the table says 'bunkum'. Read your own documents, mate! There it is in black and white in your own papers, a carbon tax of $131 a tonne. And you know, Mr Speaker, it is not going to reduce emissions. That is the critical point that this minister never actually owns up to: the fact that this whole scheme is a con. It will not actually reduce emissions. Look at the government's own figures: far from reducing emissions by five per cent by 2020, they actually increase by eight per cent—

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

The parliamentary secretary, the man learned in the law—at last he speaks! I say to the parliamentary secretary learned in the law: tell us what your own papers say. Your own papers say—

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