Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' Those 11 words—there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead—will haunt this Prime Minister for the rest of this year, for the rest of this parliament and for the rest of her term while she remains in this place. That is because there has been no more blatant refusal to confront the truth than her reversal of this promise that she made to the Australian people prior to the last election: 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.'

This Prime Minister—and her Treasurer—on more than one occasion went to the Australian people prior to the last election and made a solemn promise to every Australian that there would be no carbon tax under the government she leads. And why did she do that? She knew then that the polls were so close and that the carbon tax was so on the nose with the Australian people that she had to come forth and say on national television and to the national media—to be beamed into every lounge room in Australia—that there would be 'no carbon tax under a government I lead'. That is the promise that this Prime Minister made to the Australian people. And that is the promise that she ripped up in doing a deal to maintain her seat in The Lodge and to maintain her seat here at the despatch box in this parliament. In other words, in order to retain her position as the Prime Minister of Australia, she ripped up a solemn promise that she made on a number of occasions to the people of Australia. What would the government have us believe? Let us nail the lie at the heart of this issue. The government and the honourable member for Chifley, who is not such a bad bloke although he is part of this dysfunctional government—he has not been here that long, so I suppose he cannot be blamed for all of their ills—in this motion before the House speak of the 'urgent need to provide households with financial relief'. Why is there an urgent need to provide Australian households with financial relief? Because the government have been saying, if you listen to them, day after day, hour after hour—we heard it again in question time today—that this tax will only be imposed on 500 companies, the 500 biggest polluters in Australia. The government has been saying that ad nauseam. Hardly anybody in this country would not have heard the government's claim that this tax will only be imposed on the 500 biggest emitters—the 500 biggest companies, to put it in other words. If that is the case, if only the 500 biggest emitters are going to have the imposition of this carbon tax upon them, if only those companies are going to be met with the cost, why is there an urgent need to provide households with financial relief? This nails the lie at the heart of this government's campaign.

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