Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise with great pleasure to speak on the Excise Tariff Amendment (Fuel Indexation) Bill 2014, following on from the member for Fraser. We just sat through 22 minutes where he did absolutely everything, except propose an alternative and say what he would do other than continue to borrow. He is the one who says he is an economist and yet he does not seem to understand that you cannot keep on borrowing and borrowing and borrowing to do the basic work.

The member for Fraser said that the member for New England, who is sitting at the table, should cross the floor and sit between him and the member for Lingiari. I reckon there might be only two people talking there, because I cannot imagine the member for Lingiari spending too much time in deep conversation with the member for Fraser. I would like to see what the member for Lingiari would actually say because, if the Labor Party had their way, there would be a 6.85c per litre carbon tax bill on diesel fuel. If the member for Fraser had his way, the diesel rebate would be taken off all rural fuel, including for mining companies, farmers and fishers. So it would be a great conversation. I reckon they might have a few things to say about that.

The opposition are opposing a 0.4c rise in fuel excise. I like the member for Fraser. He is a reasonable bloke, but I like the way he is prepared to quote people from decades ago, people who are no longer in this place, yet when we quote him, when he has misunderstood or when he has changed his view, he has the temerity to call other people weathervanes. Oh, my goodness! I would say he is still smarming and that he still has a little bit of trouble sitting down from the hiding he copped about having written that stuff originally.

The government were elected to do four things and this bill, in part, plays into one of those. We were elected to axe the carbon tax, stop the boats, build the roads of the 21st century and fix the Labor mess. The carbon tax was passed, as a matter of course, to be the very first order of business that the government brought to the House. It sits over there and the Labor Party, in the lead-up to the 2010 election, said they would not bring in a carbon tax but then did. They then went to the 2013 election, saying that they would terminate the carbon tax and now they are fighting for its very survival.

We were elected to stop the boats. Six months without a boat is not a bad effort. It takes eternal vigilance and we are lucky to still have the Chief Government Whip here, Philip Ruddock, who understands what it is to have eternal vigilance on this matter. We were elected to build the roads of the 21st century. We have announced $50 billion over the next 10 years, the biggest road package in the history of Australia.

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