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

I withdraw, Madam Deputy Speaker. Standing orders must be suspended because Sunday is carbon tax day and this House needs the opportunity to censure this Prime Minister for introducing a bad tax based on a lie. This was the tax that was never, ever going to happen. It was a tax that would never happen, because we had the Prime Minister's word for it. We had her solemnly pledged word that the carbon tax would never happen.

That is why the Australian people are so angry about this tax. They are angry because they have not just been injured by this tax; they have been insulted by this tax. They have been insulted by a Prime Minister who said before the election that there would be no carbon tax, to win votes, and then to her everlasting shame agreed to a carbon tax to stay in office. This is a Prime Minister who sacrificed the welfare of the Australian people, who shredded her own credibility, who broke her own word, to save her job. That is the political crime that gnaws at this Prime Minister every hour of every day. That is the political crime which haunts this parliament. This is the political crime that is destroying this government, a government that lacks legitimacy not because it lacks a majority but because it lacks integrity. And it all starts over there. The Prime Minister is scribbling away, but she cannot wash away the stain on the soul of this government. That is why standing orders should be suspended.

Six days before the last election—and it was not just something that was blurted out, something that just slipped out in the heat of the moment—she made a solemn promise to the Australian people. At least 15 times I had said in the course of the last election campaign that as sure as night follows day there will be a carbon tax if this government is re-elected. So the Prime Minister quite deliberately with malice aforethought went on television and said, 'Trust me, there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.'

Because that was not enough—because people knew this Prime Minister already—one day before the last election she said, 'I rule out a carbon tax.' And she was not on her own. Her henchman over there, the Treasurer, described talk of a carbon tax as a 'hysterical allegation'. She went further to completely and absolutely bury the idea of any emissions trading scheme and the idea of a carbon tax. She said repeatedly during the campaign, 'Don't you worry about that,' because there was going to be a citizens assembly to look after all of that and nothing would happen, not a single thing would happen. This was to try to reassure the Australian people that not a single thing would happen until, in her words, 'a deep and lasting consensus was achieved. We don't have it now,' she said back then. Well, we certainly did not have it then and we certainly do not have it now.

I'll tell you what, Madam Deputy Speaker—and this is why standing orders must be suspended—there is a deep and lasting consensus on two things: first, that this carbon tax is a bad tax based on a lie and, second, you cannot trust a single commitment that this Prime Minister gives. That is the deep and lasting consensus that this Prime Minister has achieved.

Just imagine for a second—and this is why standing orders must be suspended—that members opposite do not change leaders. I think they will, but just imagine that they decide to persist with the current Prime Minister. She will be going into the election campaign time and time again giving solemn pledges on this, solemn pledges on that. She might even give a solemn pledge that no price will go up under 'the government I lead' because of the carbon tax. That was the pledge we got from the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. Not a single pledge that this Prime Minister makes will be taken seriously by anyone. Not a single pledge will be taken seriously by anyone because this country is haunted by the memory of the big lie—'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.'

This is why standing orders should be suspended and this is why the Australian public feel so betrayed. Circumstances did not change—oh, no. One hundred and forty nine members of this parliament got elected saying there would be no carbon tax. So the Prime Minister cannot say she was forced by the member for Melbourne. Good old Adam Bandt; God, he is powerful! She cannot say, 'He forced me. Just one man forced me. Just one man twisted my arm to bring in this carbon tax.'

It was an absolute act of betrayal by a Prime Minister who was never straight with the Australian people. But I have to say—and this is why standing orders should be suspended—betrayal is the stock in trade of this Prime Minister. I regret to say it. It is a heavy thing to say of the Prime Minister of this country that betrayal is her stock in trade. But the member for Griffith knows that. The member for Griffith knows that only too well. He knows the protestations that she made in public and in private that his job was safe. He was betrayed over the prime ministership—

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