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

I move:

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

That this House calls upon the Prime Minister to come clean with the Australian people, our forgotten families, the manufacturing sector, our exporters, our small businesses and our farmers and:

(1) own up to the following fact, that yes:

(a) she did say, five days before the last election, "there will be no carbon tax under the Government I lead";

(b) she did say, one day before the election, "I rule out a carbon tax";

(c) she did promise there would be no carbon tax without a "deep and lasting community consensus";

(d) around the world, our global competitors, Russia, Japan, Canada and the US, are walking away from the next round of Kyoto carbon-cuts; and

(2) that as Prime Minister, she should declare, "yes, I won’t introduce a carbon tax without first seeking a mandate at a new election".

It is necessary to suspend—

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I certainly do not raise this to put any additional and unnecessary pressure on you, but it is very clear, and I am sure you would agree, that I easily was on my feet before the Leader of the Opposition. I would have thought that, if he really wanted to have a debate on climate change, he would have been quicker to his feet.

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

There is no point of order. The Leader of the Opposition.

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

It is necessary to suspend standing orders because this matter cannot wait. It cannot wait and standing orders must be suspended because this is a Prime Minister who is happy to listen to actors but she will not listen to voters. She wants to say yes to celebrities, but she will not say yes to the people of Australia by having an election on this topic. She will listen to actors and she will listen to celebrities, but one of the people she would not listen to is the foreign minister, who is now walking out of the chamber. None of us are surprised that he is walking out of the chamber, because she would not listen to him either before the last election. She would not listen to him when he wanted an emissions trading scheme, instead she destroyed his prime ministership and lied to the Australian people at the election we had in the middle of last year.

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

Order! The Leader of the Opposition will be very careful.

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

I take your admonition, Mr Speaker. What did this Prime Minister say to the Australian people before the election? Putting her hands on her heart she said, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' That is why this suspension cannot wait. She has got to explain herself. What did the Treasurer say to the Australian people before the election? He said that my claim that as sure as night follows day there will be a carbon tax if this government is re-elected was a hysterical exaggeration. It is so hysterical that it is exactly what this government is doing and that is why this suspension of standing orders cannot wait.

This Prime Minister went to the Australian people saying: 'There will not be a carbon tax. There will not be an emissions trading scheme. What there will be is a climate change people's convention.' That is what she said. That is what she took to the Australian people and nothing would happen, she said, until there was a deep and lasting consensus. That is what the Prime Minister took to the Australian people. She reckons she has got a consensus because she has got a deal with the Greens. We had the climate change people's convention on the weekend. It consisted of just five people: two Greens, two Independents and one Labor minister to take the Greens' instructions back to the cabinet. That is no people's convention; that is a fraud on the Australian people and that is why it is important that we suspend standing orders.

I think that it is very important that the actors and the celebrities of this country should have their say. People who live in ecomansions have a right to be heard, they really do. People who are worth $53 million have a right to be heard, but their voice should not be heard ahead of the voice of the ordinary working people of this country. Their voice should not be heard ahead of the forgotten families of this country. It is one of the fundamental principles of our democracy that everyone's voice is equal. You do not give special weight to celebrities, you do not give special weight to people who live half the year in Hollywood, where there is no carbon tax, and you do not give special weight even to former leaders of the Liberal Party. You give weight to the voice of the Australian people. That is why it is so important that we should suspend standing orders, and that is why this matter cannot wait. I say to the Prime Minister, who typically has scuttled out of this chamber, that you will not be able to avoid the voice of the Australian people for that much longer. The Prime Minister should stop thinking that a handful of celebrities somehow represent the voice of the Australian people. She should not be frightened of their voice. If she is so certain that her arguments on climate change and a carbon tax are so right, she should listen to the Australian people. She should give them a chance to say yes or no, as the case may be. She should stop thinking that the only people who count are the people who agree with her.

Why it is so important that we suspend standing orders, and why this matter cannot wait, is that this government's carbon tax will be a massive hit on the standard of living of the forgotten families of our country. It will lead to a 25 per cent increase in power prices, a 6½c a litre increase in private petrol prices, a five per cent increase in grocery prices, a $6,000 increase in the price of a new home and, as we discovered today, at least a $12,000 a year increase in the price of running a farm—and that is at just $20 a tonne. If the government's carbon tax goes ahead, at least 16 coalmines will close, 23,000 jobs will be lost in the mining industry and 45,000 jobs will be lost in the manufacturing industry.

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

The Leader of the Opposition will return to the suspension.

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

We must suspend standing orders because the 126,000 workers in regional Australia whose jobs will be in jeopardy if this carbon tax goes ahead deserve to be heard. What has this Prime Minister got against the manufacturing workers of our country that makes her want to destroy manufacturing by putting on our industries burdens that will not be borne by any of our competitors?

We heard a lot today from the Prime Minister about the Prime Minister of Great Britain. What she did not tell us about is the escape clause that David Cameron put in his statement the other day that, if in 2014 no other country is doing what is proposed, he will revise his targets down. What we should see is a bit of honesty from this Prime Minister, who if she was fair dinkum would say to the Australian people: 'All right, I deceived you before the election. I want to make an honest politician of myself by going to you and saying, "Give me a mandate for this tax."'

The Prime Minister says there will be compensation, but of course she has overpromised the compensation. You cannot give all of it to households and half of it to industry. The fact is that there will never be enough compensation for this carbon price, because you cannot compensate people who have lost their jobs as a result of this Prime Minister's toxic tax. The tax will be permanent, the compensation will be temporary and the tax will just go up and up. It must be $40 a tonne, according to the Greens, if it is going to drive a shift from coal to gas. It must be $100 a tonne, according to the Greens, to drive a shift from fossil fuels to renewables. We know who is running this government when it comes to this policy. It is not the Prime Minister; it is Senator Bob Brown. When the Prime Minister said, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead,' did she mislead the Australian people or is the carbon tax an admission that the real Prime Minister of this country is Senator Bob Brown? The Prime Minister should get up on her feet and answer those questions. If she does not, the charge against her will be that not only did she deceive the people but also she has got no guts and she has got no ticker. (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 to suspend standing and sessional orders. This matter is urgent, because the government is refusing to answer the most basic questions in this place about the carbon tax. The government is refusing to answer a question about how many jobs will be affected. The government is refusing to answer a question about the impact on the economy. The government is refusing to answer a simple question about the impact on households. The government is refusing to answer a simple question about what the price will be, leaving the vacuum to be filled by the Greens, who range between $40 a tonne and $100 a tonne. The government is refusing to answer questions about the impact of other trading partners, such as Russia and Canada, declaring that they will not have a second round of the Kyoto protocol. The government is refusing to answer a question about whether it is modelling the impact of our trading partners pulling out over the weekend from that commitment. The government is refusing to respond to the modelling of the Australian Food and Grocery Council which suggests that food and grocery prices will rise by between three and five per cent at $26 a tonne.

The government is refusing to answer every simple question that the Australian people want answered. Instead, it is sending out others. A Prime Minister with no courage at all is standing behind an advertising campaign commenced last night led by others. The Prime Minister stated blatantly on the front page of a newspaper today that she was sending her ministers out for a blitz on the Australian community, but she will not answer simple questions in this place. The Australian people are bemused by this, but they are also made afraid by this. Why? Because it clearly illustrates the fact that this is a government with no confidence, no plan and no roadmap. It declares issues to be the greatest moral challenge of all time and it declares issues to be fundamental to the Australian economy, yet it leaves the great questions unanswered. It leaves Australians confused and in a place where, if they cannot have confidence in this government, they cannot have confidence in the destiny of the nation. So it comes as no surprise that this is a matter of urgency because as each day passes new data comes out that indicates that confidence in the community is, at best, flat but it is having a real impact on our economy. Flat retail sales, flat housing starts—it all comes through in the economy because this is a government that creates no sense of confidence. It is a government that does not believe in its own words. If the government does not believe in its own words and if it has a Prime Minister who refuses to debate this issue in detail in this place, how can you expect Australians to believe the government knows what it is doing?

In the same way that this government confuses Australians about its fiscal strategy and in the same way that it confuses Australians about its approach to climate change—having said it is the great moral challenge—now the two chief salespeople for the government's new carbon tax are the ones who only a few months ago said to Kevin Rudd, 'Dump it and dump it fast.' We have a Treasurer with no commitment and no spine. We have a Prime Minister with no courage and no direction.

Out of all of that, they are smiling at the thought that the Australian people are afraid. I will tell you what: the carbon tax issue is not about climate change; it is about the rising cost of living for everyday Australians. That is what it is about. That is why there was a visceral reaction to the ads last night. There is extreme concern in the community about the introduction of a carbon tax because Australians know that over the next six months they will face higher interest rates, higher electricity prices, higher health costs and higher education costs. They will face a flood tax, a mining tax and now a carbon tax. All of it makes everyday life more expensive for everyday Australians. The Prime Minister, who proclaims that this will be the year of decision-making, does not have the ticker to come in here and lay the details of the carbon tax on the floor of the House for all Australians to debate.

This is a government without direction and without confidence, and it emanates directly from the leadership of the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. They are not committed to this. They simply do not understand where they are taking the Australian people. From the coalition's perspective, we are standing up for everyday Australians and we call on the government to go to the people and get their endorsement if they think it is such a great policy. (Time expired)

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We just had the shadow Treasurer say there was no confidence in the Australian economy at a time when we have the biggest investment pipeline in Australia's history. What we have seen yet again—

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, Mr Speaker. Is it in order for a motion to suspend standing orders, which is directed at asking the Prime Minister to explain herself to the House, to be answered by the—

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

Order! The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. He is now warned. The Leader of the House has the call.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We heard from those opposite a number of pleas for those on this side of the House to answer questions, but this suspension of standing orders motion is to stop question time. They are the first opposition since Federation who have come in here day after day and moved a suspension of standing orders motion at 10 minutes to three so they can get on TV before Play School. That is the dominant strategy of their tactics committee each and every day. The only reason Tony Abbott wants an election is that he knows he will not last the distance. He knows that the opposition are divided. They stand for nothing and therefore they are divided on everything. They are divided across the board. It is Minchin versus Abbott on whether the Libs should support good policy or not. It is Turnbull versus Abbott on carbon pricing.

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

The Leader of the House will refer to members by their parliamentary titles and relate his material to the suspension.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is the member for Fairfax and the member for Moore versus the Leader of the Opposition on plain packaging, and it is the entire Liberal Party and the Nationals on carbon farming—

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

On a point of order, Mr Speaker, we spoke to the subject over here. The Leader of the House is seeking to talk about everything else.

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

The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. The Leader of the House will debate the suspension of standing orders.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am indeed. The reason they want to suspend standing orders rather than have question time is that they are quite rightly embarrassed by their performance in recent times. They are divided against each other. There are letters from the shadow Treasurer today in the Financial Reviewa day after he did a doorstop interview saying, 'Put aside your individual interests'—which bag the shadow finance minister and the Leader of the Opposition for their lack of economic credibility. It just does not stack up. We know that you cannot believe anything that they have to say. We know that the member for Wentworth sits there day after day reading his little iPad because there is no way he can get a question—not one question all year from the shadow minister for communications.

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

Order! The Leader of the House will relate his material to the suspension.

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

Mr Speaker, because of your rulings in past weeks with respect to speaking to the motion or to the suspension, the Leader of the Opposition did bring himself back to—

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

The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat.

Mr Tehan interjecting—

Does the member for Wannon want to respond to the point of order? The member for Wannon will be quiet. The Leader of the House knows his responsibility to relate his speech to the suspension, and on a couple of occasions I had to remind the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the House has the call.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The reason we should not have this suspension of standing orders is very clear. It is just a stunt from an opposition that is incapable of even trying to hold the executive to account. That is what we do in question time each day. The opposition says that the National Broadband Network is a major issue—it is terrible!—but it cannot even get a question from the shadow minister for communications. He is not allowed to communicate with this parliament by asking a question. We know that is the case because last week the opposition went into a public implosion. Its private division became public when the Chief Opposition Whip sent out an email bagging the member for Wentworth and bagging other senior members of his own political party. At the time, the Chief Opposition Whip said that he did not show it to the Leader of the Opposition; it had nothing to do with him—almost.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The Leader of the House will relate his material to the suspension.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Apart from the fact that he came down and got a tick off and the Leader of the Opposition went over to the box and approved that email going out bagging the member for Wentworth—it was untrue, of course—it had nothing to do with him. The reason we should not support this suspension is that we as a parliament should not provide a cover for the opposition's incompetence and its failure to stand for absolutely anything. Day after day the opposition come in here and try to move a suspension so that it does not actually have to debate the substance before this parliament—so that it does not have to debate the legislation, so that it does not have to try to hold the government to account. We know today that this Leader of the Opposition is the only Liberal leader still alive who does not support a price on carbon. Everyone else is out there—the member for Wentworth, the former member for Bradfield, the former PM Malcolm Fraser and the former opposition leader John Hewson. John Howard supported a price on carbon. He went to an election supporting a price on carbon. Every one of them supports a price on carbon except for our friend here the Leader of the Opposition.

Today in question time I thought, 'I want more questions from those opposite. That is why we should not have a suspension. There is some remote chance that the member for Wentworth might ask one. If not, there is some remote chance that the Leader of the National Party might ask me a question.' He has not since some time early in the last term of parliament—it has been years. If question time were not adjourned each day there might be some chance.

Earlier today we did have a question from the member for Bradfield. The member for Bradfield, whose electorate had the honour of having the Prime Minister there today talking with constituents about the need to take action on climate change, said that he wants an election on carbon tax. He is having a vote on his website, and the result is that 56.6 per cent say that yes, they do support the government introducing a carbon tax. I say to the member for Bradfield that it is no wonder the Prime Minister got such a good reception.

I said last week that the opposition leader had done for political discourse what the vuvuzela did for World Cup soccer. The first time you hear him, it is a bit interesting—it is loud and you cannot ignore it. To give him credit, you cannot ignore it, but over a period of time when you hear it day after day and match after match you realise that there is only one noise, and that noise is no: no, no, no, no, no. That is the only noise the Leader of the Opposition can make. After a while you find what the Australian public finds, which is that it is just annoying. They expect better. They expect some substance from the Leader of the Opposition, not this relentless negativity, which is all we get day after day.

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

The time allotted for the debate has concluded.

Question put:

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

The House divided. [15:24]

(The Speaker—Mr Jenkins)

Question negatived.

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

In the absence of the opposition wanting question time, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.