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

Mr Speaker, I seek leave to move a motion of censure in the government.

Leave not granted.

Mr Speaker, I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would enable the Leader of the Opposition to move forthwith:

That this House censure the Prime Minister for betraying the Australian people with the introduction of the world’s biggest carbon tax when she said, five days before the last election, in a phrase that will haunt her to her political grave, “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead” and:

(1) the 72 Labor members of parliament that betrayed their electorates by voting for a carbon tax today stand condemned; and

(2) all members supporting this toxic tax are duly warned that the Coalition will pursue every vote in every seat to give the Australian people their say on this carbon tax at the next election which has been denied to them today by a Prime Minister who has deceived them, and a Labor Party that has forgotten about families, abandoned workers and become a risk to our future prosperity.

Standing orders do need to be suspended because today this parliament has witnessed the unseemly spectacle of a government cheering itself for breaking its own election promise. We have witnessed the unseemly spectacle of government ministers celebrating a betrayal. They celebrated their betrayal with a kiss. This will be remembered as the day the Gillard government broke faith with the Australian people and gave itself a round of applause for doing so. Shame on this government!

We know because we talk to people, we know because we listen to people and we know because we hear people in this very parliament that people are angry because they have not been treated with respect by this government. The people of Australia were lied to by this government before the election and they have not been listened to by this government since the election. This Prime Minister should not just say sorry; she should resign. That is what this Prime Minister should do.

We have heard a lot from the government today about their being on the right side of history. What an incredibly arrogant presumption from a Prime Minister and a government who are on the wrong side of truth. That is the problem with this government. If the Prime Minister had any integrity and conception of what happens in the real world, she would know that you cannot build a decent future based on lies, that you cannot build a political system that is respected and has integrity by deceiving the Australian people. That is exactly what the government have done today.

We heard from the Deputy Prime Minister and from the Treasurer that this was a great reform in the Labor tradition. I do not know about the great tradition of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating whose reforms involved lower taxes and less regulation. This is a reform in the tradition of the Rudd-Gillard government; a reform in the tradition of pink batts which catch fire in people's roofs; a reform in the tradition of overpriced school halls; digging up people's streets; the National Broadband Network, the greatest white elephant of all time; and Medicare Gold, the one great monument to the policy thinking of the current Prime Minister. The Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has said that this is a Labor reform through and through. That was the phrase he used. The Australian people fully understand what this is. They understand that this is socialism dressed up. It is socialism dressed up as environmentalism.

Standing orders must be suspended because this is the only appropriate way to mark the significance of this day. It is betrayal day because this is the day when the Prime Minister has consummated her broken promise, the broken promise that will haunt her to the grave. We all remember what it is and let it echo around this chamber again and again: 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' That is what she said and that is precisely the opposite of what she has done. When this Prime Minister made that statement she did not just say it for herself; she said it for every single Labor member of this parliament.

We see them all up there, hanging their heads in shame. The member for Braddon is hanging his head in shame and the member for Reid is hanging his head in shame, as well they should. The member for Moreton, that man of principle yesterday, who yesterday was so determined not to betray his electorate, marched into this parliament and betrayed his electorate today. He was not prepared to betray his electorate to protect the Prime Minister's job, but he did betray his electorate today and he did betray the job hopes of all his constituents.

This is a bad tax. It is a bad tax based on a lie. It is very interesting that today we put some questions to the Prime Minister and she could not answer two important points. There is no compensation for small business. The 1½ million small businesses in this country are going to be left in the lurch by this bad tax based on a lie. She also had no answer for the forgotten families of Australia, some of whom were referred to by the member for McPherson in her question today. These are the families who will be out of pocket under her carbon tax and they will be out of pocket even on the government's own figures. Even on the government's own figures, some three million Australian households will be worse off. And we know just how untrustworthy this government is with figures. We know these figures cannot be believed. We know that, when the government says power prices will go up by 10 per cent, that is just the start. They will go up by 10 per cent with a carbon tax of $23 a tonne; just how much will they go up by when a carbon tax reaches $131 a tonne, as it will under the government's own figures?

Mr Albanese interjecting—

The minister at the table says 'bunkum'. Read your own documents, mate! There it is in black and white in your own papers, a carbon tax of $131 a tonne. And you know, Mr Speaker, it is not going to reduce emissions. That is the critical point that this minister never actually owns up to: the fact that this whole scheme is a con. It will not actually reduce emissions. Look at the government's own figures: far from reducing emissions by five per cent by 2020, they actually increase by eight per cent—

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

The parliamentary secretary, the man learned in the law—at last he speaks! I say to the parliamentary secretary learned in the law: tell us what your own papers say. Your own papers say—

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They're in our papers. That's what you're quoting from!

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

that emissions will go up from 578 million tonnes to 621 million tonnes—an eight per cent increase in our emissions, on your own figures. If you go down the same page, Parliamentary Secretary Dreyfus, you see that, by 2050, we will not cut emissions by 80 per cent; we will cut them by six per cent. The $131-a-tonne carbon tax reduces our emissions by—wait for it!—six per cent. We will achieve the 80 per cent emission reduction that he boasts about only because we will spend $57 billion, 1½ per cent of GDP, on foreign carbon credits from foreign carbon traders.

This is a black day for Australian democracy. This carbon tax is a sign of the Prime Minister's willingness to betray people for power. It is a sign of her unwillingness to listen to people and her unwillingness to admit to making mistakes. I say to this parliament that we on this side will work every hour of every day to repeal this bad tax based on a lie. We will oppose it with every breath in our bodies in opposition and we will rescind it in government. I seek leave to table 30,000 signatures. This petition by 30,000 Australians— (Time expired)

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

Is the motion seconded?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. It is essential that this parliament suspend standing orders to debate this censure motion today so that we can begin the repairs to the fabric of our democracy that has been so damaged by the vote in the parliament this morning. It is a shameful episode in Australia's democracy that the government of the day has ignored the will of the people, ignored its own promises to the Australian people and imposed on the people of this country a burden that will make their lives so much more difficult. Members of this place represent families, businesses, manufacturers, miners, farmers and other workers, but today 72 members of the Labor Party, with a few colleagues on the crossbenches, voted to make the lives of their constituents just that little bit more difficult, that little bit harder, by putting up the price of their food, the price of their transport, the price of their education and the price of their health—and some of them will pay the price with their jobs.

And this is a tax the government said it would not introduce. The government is simply bereft of legitimacy. It was cobbled together out of expediency and self-interest. It does not have a mandate. It certainly does not have a soul, it certainly has no honesty and it has subjected the whole of Australia to the will of a very small minority. The gloating of Senator Bob Brown and the member for Lyne a little earlier, the self-congratulation of the members opposite and the members for New England and Denison, and the celebrations of the Prime Minister and her cohorts only serve to inflame the sense of betrayal that the people of Australia have today. Australians across the country feel ashamed of their government; they are embarrassed that in a democracy like ours their will, their views, should be of such little significance that they were ignored by this government, a government that has simply forgotten its obligations to the Australian people.

The carbon tax will go down in history as a hatchet job on our democracy, and we need to suspend standing orders today so that we can demonstrate to the Australian people that the parliament do care about these things. We do respect the role that we play as members of parliament—our obligation to the Australian people to be honest with them, to tell them the truth, and then to deliver what we promised at election time.

Lies have paved the path to the Lodge for this Prime Minister: 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.'

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, I think she still leads the government. I know that she is still living in the Lodge, even if it has got a bit leaky! Occasionally, she gets to sit in the Prime Minister's chair, although she has run away from it now. The reality is that we know that Bob Brown runs the government but she is still the Prime Minister. She leads the government. She has broken her promise. The reality is that this Prime Minister has betrayed the trust of the Australian people. She is not fit to fill the office. She deserves to be censured and she needs to be censured today so that the Australian people know that there are some people of decency and goodwill in this parliament who really respect the fundamental traits of our democracy: government of the people by the people for the people. The public have made their views on what they think about this carbon tax absolutely clear. This is the only consensus this Prime Minister has achieved. Remember her promise to develop a consensus before we had a carbon tax? She has the consensus: the people of Australia say no to the carbon tax. If the government want to govern for the people in the interests of the people they will say no and will not impose this tax upon them. What we have here are the Australian people being shut out. They are being ignored. They are being treated with disdain by this Australian government. Many of them are going to have to meet the higher costs of living, all of them associated with this tax. Some of them will lose their jobs.

International competitors will be delighted. They are looking forward to the feast from picking up our markets around the world or extending their exports of cheap products to this country. The reality is this government has let us down. If tyranny is an abuse of power by a few over the will of the people then sadly tyranny has come to Australia this day. We expect that kind of thing in Libya. We expect a lot better here. (Time expired)

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

The performance of the Leader of the Opposition today has shown yet again why he is simply—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Nationals were heard in silence. The Leader of the House will be heard in silence.

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

Consistency is not their strong point. The performance of the Leader of the Opposition today has shown yet again why he is simply unfit for high office. The performance of the Leader of the National Party has shown why he is unfit to be in this place at all. It was an extraordinary performance. We went back to reds under the beds. We were likened to Libya, to tyranny, and yet what we have had through this process is the most democratic process that has been conducted for a serious piece of legislation since I came to this place.

This is a historic day after two decades of debate, 35 parliamentary inquiries, the Shergold report, the Garnaut review, the joint parliamentary committee and the 2007 election with both political parties going to that election asking for an emissions trading scheme. Today we stopped talking and started acting. Today we move forward to a clean energy future. They say that it was undemocratic just like the other 217 bills that have been passed by this chamber compared with the 108 that were carried under the Howard government. This morning alone, prior to question time, we carried 22 bills—one-fifth or 20 per cent of the workload of the Howard government in its first year. This is a government that is getting on with governing. This is a parliament that is functioning and is functioning well.

Mr John Cobb interjecting—

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

The member for Calare is warned.

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

We see hysteria from those opposite that yesterday moved for the suspension of standing and sessional orders and then gagged the right of the government to respond to their two speakers. Today they were heard in silence, but we hear the interjections throughout my contribution. It is a fact that we ensured that every single MP who was on the speaking list got to make a contribution to this debate. Some 126 members of this House participated, including 68 members of the coalition. Of all of their front bench—and you have to be pretty bad not to make their front bench—there was only one, the member for Wentworth, who did not speak and he chose not to make a contribution.

We had 40 hours of debate over 30 calendar days. How does that compare? For Work Choices, 22 hours over eight days and we went to war in Iraq on the basis of under 30 hours of debate. The fact is that we took this seriously. We put in a process from which to reach certainty and in spite of the hysterical actions of those opposite it went through. Their actions included denying pairs to a person with a child on the way until they were embarrassed into changing their minds and bringing back people from the United Nations and NATO in order not to make a difference. The only member who did not get the right to participate fully was the member for Indi and that was her own responsibility due to her outrageous behaviour last night, which was consistent with her behaviour both in the House and outside the House. It was consistent with the sort of behaviour that comes from gathering with the sorts of people we saw in the gallery today. They were outside my electorate office engaging in the sort of debate that does no credit to the democratic process.

Churchill said that Russia was 'a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma'. Tony Abbott's climate change negativity is hysteria wrapped in an overstatement inside an exaggeration.

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

The minister will use parliamentary titles.

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

He has gone from policies that are dead, buried and cremated to government bills that are suicide notes and now to a promise to repeal the tax cuts and pension increases which is, to quote him, 'written in blood'. This is the sort of language used by the Leader of the Opposition, the whipping up of people in the gallery day after day. The opposition have gone from not only acting hysterically in the chamber, they have now gone to stacking the galleries, including people who were in the Speaker's gallery and therefore signed in by members of parliament in order to be in that gallery today. We know last time that they took some of these demonstrators to lunch in the members and guests dining room prior to their disruption and today we saw their complete lack of respect for our democratic processes, their complete lack of respect for our parliamentary processes.

This is a man who is not a conservative; he is a reactionary. We know that half of the people on that side of the House also support putting a price on carbon. We know that that is the case because they had a vote on it when they all signed up to the CPRS, including the support that was given by the Leader of the Opposition, the weathervane on climate change at that time. We see this constant hysteria. Have a look at the facts with regard to acting on climate change. It is one thing to be a climate sceptic. It is another thing to be a market sceptic and to call yourself a liberal, but this is a market sceptic opposite. Peter Costello has got it right—he does not know about economics, he does not care about economics, this is the old DLP when it comes to economic policy. That is why we see climate scepticism and market scepticism.

To think that the business community do not want the certainty that they have gained this morning through the legislation is simply to show how out of touch the Leader of the Opposition is. He says that he will claw it all back but will he really? He knows that the business community will respond really well to the idea that industry assistance is going to be cut back. He knows that the pensioners of Australia are going to say, 'Thank you for taking back my pension increases.' He knows that there are a million Australians who this morning were taken out of the tax system and, what he would have you believe is, that he is going to put them back in the system because he is going to lower the income tax-free threshold from $18,000 to $6,000. This is someone who would have you believe that he is going to go to an election saying that income taxes will be increased for low- and middle-income earners earning under $90,000. This is an absolute fraud when it comes to climate change, when it comes to economic policy and when it comes to common decency with regard to how debate is conducted in this place. That is why he is the only living Liberal leader who is opposed to a price on carbon. He is isolated from the mainstream of opinion—

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! Those on my left.

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

The scientists say we should act on the science, so he dismisses them; the economists say we should use market based mechanisms, so he dismisses the economists; the environmentalists say that we need to act to protect our environment; and, most importantly of all, the parents and grandkids say that we have a responsibility to leave the world a better place than the one that we inherited. That is the most important task that we have as members of the House of Representatives. It is one which we on this side of the House take seriously. It is one which we honoured this morning through our vote to put a price on carbon in the interests of our economic future, in the interests of our environment and in the interests of the change that is necessary if we are going to compete in the modern carbon constrained world which is coming.

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

The time for the debate has concluded. Order! Order!

Question put.

The House divided. [15:16]

(The Speaker—Mr Harry Jenkins)

Question negatived.

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

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.

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

Mr Speaker, in light of the comments by the Leader of the House in responding to the suspension motion and his remarks that the government ought to listen to the mainstream, I have 34,000 signatures on this petition and I again seek leave to table this petition on behalf of 34,000 decent Australians against the carbon tax.

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

I have no problem at all with the petition being tabled, but there is a proper process to do so and the Leader of the Opposition should do it under the proper processes.

Leave not granted.