Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Stephen Harper in case you do not know. I say to the Leader of the Opposition: he must recognise that next Wednesday is a historic day. This coming Wednesday is a historic day not because it is the anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11—or the birth of the parking meter for those who are interested in trivia; next Wednesday is the first anniversary of the Townsville termination. That was the famous press conference where the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and the member for McMahon stood there and said, 'Today is the day the Labor Party is terminating the carbon tax.' The Townsville termination. We cannot forget that moment. The member for McMahon was there: he was like Robin standing next to Batman, wearing the face mask, claiming, 'I'll be right there with you, Batman.' In fact, the only termination the Leader of the Opposition is familiar with is the termination of Julia Gillard, the termination of Kevin Rudd the first time, and he put Kevin Rudd back into the prime ministership to terminate the carbon tax.

Yet, today is going to be the third day that the Labor Party has indeed voted against the termination of the carbon tax. So they said before the election that they would terminate the carbon tax, and on every occasion since the election they have voted to keep the carbon tax. There is one lesson we can get out of this, one thing you can be absolutely sure of—

Ms Butler interjecting—

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