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

I second the motion. To remind the House, the motion is that the standing orders be suspended so that the following motion can be passed:

That this House calls on the Prime Minister to apologise because in breaking her promise not to introduce a carbon tax she is compounding the world’s highest electricity prices with the world’s biggest carbon tax.

It is important that standing and sessional orders be suspended because the most central promise that the Prime Minister made in the last election was, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' Then, within weeks of the election—not months, not years, but weeks—she broke that promise. For that reason she must apologise. She said one thing to get elected, to fool the Australian people, and she chose to do the opposite to save her political skin.

This Prime Minister's epitaph will be, 'Here lies Julia Gillard, lying to the end.' Or: 'Here lies Julia Gillard. She chose to mislead when the truth would do.'

See this speech in context