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

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Warringah moving immediately:That:

(1)

this House calls on the Prime Minister to stop evading and start explaining why, over the past 12 months alone, she has:

(a)

supported an emissions trading scheme, then opposed an emissions trading scheme;

(b)

promised not to introduce a carbon tax, then announced she would introduce a carbon tax;

(c)

blamed Bob Brown for forcing her to break her promise—

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The attendants will bring the gallery to order.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The House will come to order. The Leader of the Opposition has the call.

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

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Warringah moving immediately:That:

(1)

this House calls on the Prime Minister to stop evading and start explaining why, over the past 12 months alone, she has:

(a)

supported an emissions trading scheme, then opposed an emissions trading scheme;

(b)

promised not to introduce a carbon tax, then announced she would introduce a carbon tax;

(c)

blamed Bob Brown for forcing her to break her promise about the carbon tax, then admitted that it wasn’t true; and

(d)

then promised tax cuts as compensation, only to back flip and scrap this promise five days later; and

(2)

if the Prime Minister can’t come clean and answer these questions honestly, then this House urges her to act with integrity by seeking a mandate from the Australian people for her carbon tax and let the people decide.

I am sure that as soon as the Prime Minister stands up, consistent with what she has demanded of us on this side of the chamber, she will dissociate herself from those people in the gallery and apologise for their actions. They are here at her behest and she should apologise for their actions.

It used to be said of the late American President Richard Nixon: if he rubbed his nose he was telling the truth; if he tugged his ears he was telling the truth; but, as soon as he opened his mouth, you knew he was lying. That is the Prime Minister’s problem. This suspension is necessary to clean up the constant evasions and deceptions of this Prime Minister. She said, ‘There will be no carbon tax under the government that I lead.’ There is a carbon tax coming. She said that there would be a climate change people’s convention to establish a deep and lasting convention. There is no people’s convention. She said that there would be an East Timor detention centre before the election. There is no East Timor detention centre—that got lost somewhere in the Timor Sea. She said that there would never be onshore detention centres. There are onshore detention centres coming to a military base near you. She said that we must have a GST grab to fund public hospitals, and it is not happening. She said that the Murray-Darling Basing plan would be implemented, sight unseen. Now, it is not going to happen. She said that there would be a national curriculum, starting in 2011. Now, it is off on the never-never. She said that we must have a cash-for-clunkers scheme to save the environment. That was scrapped as soon as the floods hit Brisbane. She said that the mining tax was settled before the election. Of course, it is not settled. She said that we had to have a tax summit to put the Henry review fully on the table, and now the great disappearing tax summit has become a tax forum and soon it will be a gathering of a coffee club.

This is a Prime Minister who has almost no familiarity with the truth. She claims that China is closing down its coal fired power stations—patently, untrue. She said that the Christmas Island detention riots were in-hand, and the centre was, subsequently, partially destroyed. She said that she has believed in an emissions trading scheme all along. Tell that to the foreign minister whose emissions trading scheme she sabotaged and then whose leadership she destroyed. I want to quote something that this delusional Prime Minister said to the Australian people a week ago. Listen to this Prime Minister, in full Napoleon mode:

Faced with hurdles, I will always find a way through. Faced with choosing between taking a few knocks or doing what’s best for the nation, I will put our nation first every time, no matter what the personal price.

Why did this Prime Minister stand up and brazenly say to the Australian people, six days before the last election, ‘There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead’? Was that a Prime Minister who would always put our country first? Was that a Prime Minister who would take a few knocks for the people? Of course, it was not.

We have seen quite a few different faces from this Prime Minister over the last little while. We have seen real Julia; we have seen fake Julia. We have seen wooden Julia; we have seen teary Julia. We have seen all the way with LBJ Julia; we have seen Bible expert Julia. We have seen George Washington ‘I will never tell a lie’ Julia. The fact is: the one thing we have never seen is truthful Julia. That is the one face of this Prime Minister we will never see because the one thing that she could not say to the Australian people, six days before the last election, was, ‘Yes, I will be honest and up-front with you: there will be a carbon tax under the government I lead.’ That is the fundamental problem with everything this government does. This government is based on a lie. What did we see today? Today, we saw precious Julia—very precious Julia, indeed—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition will refer to members by their parliamentary titles.

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

campaigning and complaining about a few nasty placards. I’ll tell you what: we never heard any complaints from former Prime Minister John Howard when people like the minister for climate change and the Assistant Treasurer fronted rallies, before placards, calling the Prime Minister ‘Satan’ and ‘Hitler’ and ‘baby killer’. This is the kind of thing that the former Prime Minister had to put up with, and members opposite did not utter the slightest word of an apology or show the slightest sign of embarrassment. This is the preciousness of a Prime Minister who thinks that anyone who does not agree with her is an extremist. She thinks all of the people who were good enough to turn up outside of this parliament building, yesterday, were somehow extremists—everyone except the member for Robertson, who was there with them. The trouble with the extremists, as she sees them, is that they include the Chairman of BlueScope Steel, who is not only the Chairman of BlueScope Steel but also is so extreme that he is on the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia. She says that everyone who does not agree with her is extreme but she so forgets herself that she cannot remember that one of the extremes is the extreme she relies on to stay in government. This is a measure of the dishonesty, the mendacity and the hypocrisy of this Prime Minister. Why shouldn’t the Australian people be angry with this Prime Minister who won office based on a lie?

Why shouldn’t they be angry with a Prime Minister who said there would be no carbon tax? Now she says there will be a carbon tax, a carbon tax that will put $300 a year on your power bill, just for starters, a carbon tax that would put 6½c a litre on your petrol bill, just for starters, a carbon tax that will put $6,240 on the price of a new home, just for starters, a carbon tax that will cost 126,000 jobs in regional Australia, just for starters, and a carbon tax that will close down the steel industry, the aluminium industry and the motor industry, just for starters. I say to this Prime Minister: if she really is a person of conviction, if she really does believe that this carbon tax that she once said would never happen must happen—if she really believes this—why doesn’t she have the guts to face the people? Why doesn’t she have the guts to seek a mandate on her carbon tax and then accept the judgment of the Australian people? (Time expired)

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion. Following on from what the Leader of the Opposition so eloquently said there, the Prime Minister is clearly delusional. In fact, I note that the former Leader of the Opposition is up in the gallery, former medical doctor Dr Brendan Nelson. If he were in this place he would diagnose the Prime Minister with delusional disorder and prescribe appropriate drugs. The reason why we need to move swiftly to deal with this motion—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I allowed the Leader of the Opposition a very wide mark on making accusations that could only be made within a motion. The member for North Sydney is straying even further, and he should be very careful.

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

The reason why we are moving this motion now and we are seeking to suspend standing orders is that the actions of the Prime Minister are now having a profound effect on confidence in the Australian economy. The chief analyst at Southern Cross Equities has advised his worldwide clients that Australian equities are underperforming the world. I quote:

… the key issue is that Australia economic and taxation policy remains “unpredictable”, with foreign investors displeased with the continual “surprise” movement of the regulatory goal posts in Australia.

It goes on:

I don’t know how many times I have to write that “stability and certainty” of policy are how to attract long-term foreign investment …

There is no doubt in my mind this is the worst excuse for a Federal Government Australia has had since the 1970’s, and that is reflected by the global P/E relative de-rating of Australian equities.

That is going around the world, and what a surprise! When the Prime Minister is asked whether she is going to have a carbon tax, on the one hand she says no; on the other hand she says yes. When the Prime Minister is asked what the tax rate associated with it is going to be, on the one hand she says, ‘We’re making up numbers of $26 a tonne’; on the other hand the Secretary to the Treasury appears before a Senate committee today saying $26 a tonne is very reasonable.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Swan interjecting

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

I am coming to you, Swannie.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Swan interjecting

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

I am coming to you, old son! On the one hand they say jobs are going to be created by the carbon tax; on the other hand Eric Roozendaal warns Swan on coal job losses, he writes to him about that. We are on Eric Roozendaal’s side just on that one. On the one hand the Prime Minister says it is in the national interest to move on pricing carbon. Yet I feel sorry for the foreign minister over there; his heart must be contracting every time this Prime Minister says it is in the national interest to move on carbon pricing, because this is the Prime Minister that not long ago told that man to dump an emissions trading scheme—that it was in the Labor Party’s interest not to act. Of course, there could be no better illustration of the government’s schizophrenia than the fact that this Prime Minister ran out there and told the Australian people that there would be tax cuts associated with it. The government encouraged Ross Garnaut to go out there and talk about the Henry tax cuts—even briefing out the front page of national papers on a Newspoll weekend, and yet today the dead cat is on the table. There are no tax cuts. They are phantom tax cuts. They are not real. It is this government again engaging in deceit.

Mr Speaker, I would say to you this is having a profound impact not only on investment confidence; it is having a profound impact on consumer confidence, it is having a profound impact on Australian families, and it is having a profound impact on the confidence Australians have in their Prime Minister and in their government. It is just part of everyday policy, whether it be border protection, whether it be royalties in relation to the mining tax, or whether it be a host of policy issues. It is a government that is confused, a government that is directionless, a government without principle and a government without a soul.

From our perspective and the perspective of the Australian people, I would say to this government: dump the politics. We see the Labor MPs are ordered to distance the government from the Greens. In a week’s time we will see Greens MPs ordered to distance themselves from Labor. I would say to you, Mr Speaker: now is the time to go to the Australian people. Now is the time for the Prime Minister to have some ticker, to have some courage, to have some consistency. Go to the Australian people and ask them whether it is right for you to break yet another promise. (Time expired)

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the suspension motion of the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition asked me a question about a protest in the gallery. I do not believe people should protest in the public galleries of this parliament. I believe this parliament should be a place of reason. Because I believe this parliament should be a place of reason, I each and every day continue to be disappointed by the performance of the coalition in its modern form.

The Leader of the Opposition challenges me on my views about yesterday’s protest outside Parliament House. I have said no words of criticism of the individuals who attended that protest. I have said no words of criticism of the Australians who came to that protest. I have said no words of criticism of the placards they held up, and I do not say those words of criticism now.

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hartsuyker interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Cowper will come to the dispatch box and withdraw. He is warned, and that is a precursor for naming.

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My criticism is not of the Australians who gathered yesterday; my criticism is of the Leader of the Opposition for exercising the poor judgment of going out to a rally and associating himself with One Nation, with the League of Rights, with anti-Semitic groups and with grossly sexist signs. That is my criticism. It is not of the Australians who gathered out there. I utter not a word of criticism about them but I criticise the judgment of this man in associating himself with extremism and with gross sexism.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The House will come to order. The Leader of the Opposition will sit back down; he can deal with any grievance that he has, after this debate, by other means. He was heard in silence. He was allowed a lot of latitude outside of his motion for suspension of standing orders. The Prime Minister has the call and the Leader of the Opposition has other avenues to use. This applies to both sides: I am happy for you to have a robust debate but to carry on in the way that the House carries on is ridiculous.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On yesterday’s protest every Australian has the opportunity to see the footage and to judge for themselves. But the judgment to go out to that protest is indicative of a continuing lack of judgment by the Leader of the Opposition. National leadership requires judgment. It requires getting the big calls right. It requires constancy of purpose. It requires an ability to absorb the facts.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Mackellar is warned.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It requires working your way through those facts and policy design. At every stage this Leader of the Opposition gets the big judgment calls wrong.

Let’s just look at the issues confronting the nation this year. On rebuilding Queensland the Leader of the Opposition got the judgment call wrong. He preferred to spread fear in the community rather than put together a package to rebuild Queensland. He does not run that fear campaign any more. He has dropped off that fear campaign but there he was, saying to the people of Queensland that he was quite fond of levies when they were about funding his election commitments but he would not exercise the judgment to support a fairly constructed levy to rebuild Queensland and the rest of the nation. National leadership requires getting the big calls right.

Secondly what happened this year was a national health agreement. We have a health system staggering and suffering because of the actions of the Leader of the Opposition, when he was a long-serving health minister. This Leader of the Opposition, characteristically, with his usual misjudgments, went out and bagged the COAG national health agreement before it was announced. He did not wait to absorb the detail, did not worry about the future for Australian families, did not put his mind to whether or not people would be able to get a doctor in the middle of the night or whether their public hospital would work for them when they needed it; he just went out and criticised, because that is what the Leader of the Opposition does. National leadership requires getting the big calls right.

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

I rise on a point of order. The terms of the suspension of standing orders are about the carbon tax. The Prime Minister should be required to defend her positions on the carbon tax. She is talking about the national health reforms. I would suggest to you that it is well beyond—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will sit down. I appreciate that he has supporters around this place who think he has a role as the Manager of Opposition Business but he was outside the chamber when his leader was on his feet. It was a very wide suspension of standing orders. The Prime Minister could hardly not be in order compared to what has been said in the debate so far.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of course it continues. The Leader of the Opposition gets the big calls wrong. In balancing the budget he had an $11 billion black hole. With the minerals resource rent tax—allowing Australians to share in the wealth generated from the minerals in our ground through better taxation arrangements for companies, better infrastructure and more superannuation—he got the big judgment call wrong. On the politics of grief, we saw his shadow minister out there trying to raise fear and concern in the Australian community, edging their way towards embracing a discriminatory immigration policy, breaking away from the Liberal tradition over decades. There was the Leader of the Opposition on TV endorsing the bitter politics of grief in order to stoke community concerns.

Then he comes into this place on carbon pricing, refusing to recognise that he should be acting in the national interest. He is not a Liberal in the tradition of Liberals past. John Howard understood that this issue needed to be grappled with. John Howard understood that. John Howard actually put out this report. He went to an election promising an emissions trading scheme but here is this hollow, bitter man. He is a man with no judgment, who never gets the big calls right. The Leader of the Opposition has gone to the Australian community and said that he believes in climate change; no, he rejects the science. He has gone to the Australian community and said, ‘Let’s back the carbon pollution reduction scheme,’ and then switched his vote. He has gone to the Australian community and said, ‘Why not just have a carbon tax; it would be simplest system?’ and now runs a fear campaign against it. The Leader of the Opposition is a man with no convictions in the national interest. He is a man who will only look for his political interests.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition: I believe increasingly Australians are disgusted by his negativity and revolted by his arrogance.

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

Mr Hockey interjecting

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

Mr Abbott interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Both the Leader of the Opposition and the member for North Sydney were heard in relative silence!

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They see it on display every day—this puffed up arrogance as he pursues his narrow political interests and goes about spreading fear and negativity in the community. He does not stand for one thing that would improve the lives of Australian families. Not one policy, not one plan, not one conviction: nothing that he believes in.

Mr Speaker, I want to conclude by saying this: the Leader of the Opposition, with his arrogance and his negativity, is leading the Liberal Party down the wrong path. I believe there are members on his backbench who will leave this place and sit in their electorate offices and they will think to themselves: ‘Did I take out a Liberal Party ticket all of those years ago in order to follow a man like this? Did I take out a Liberal Party ticket all those years ago to see my leader out at an event yesterday, associating himself with One Nation and the League of Rights? Is that why I joined the Liberal Party?’ And I believe when they reflect on that in their constituencies they will come to one conclusion: a man with no judgment stands before the Australian people exposed.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for the debate has expired. The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.

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

Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister, I think quite appropriately now that she has finished her contribution, made an utterly offensive statement about the nature of the coalition’s immigration policy and she should withdraw.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! There were numerous things in the three speeches in that debate that, if I had been alert to them earlier, we might have had contesting withdrawals. I think we should leave it at that and perhaps over the break try to get back to thinking about treating each other with a little bit of respect and civility.

Question put:

That the motion (Mr Abbott’s) be agreed to.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, it being clear the opposition has no questions, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.