Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Berlin Wall may well have fallen but the wall for logic clearly is still well and truly in place because it does not penetrate the mind of Senator Cameron. Logic is not something that is his strong suit. Indeed, he has come in here, given a 15-minute spray that should have been delivered during the second reading debate, marches in and marches out. He has already gone from the chamber and he expects us to take him seriously. In the hope that he might, in fact, read the Hansard can I tell him that one thing I have learned from time to time is that the amount of volume in a speech does not necessarily equate with the amount of evidence in a speech. Usually, the greater the volume required by the speaker, the less evidence he or she has to offer in relation to the matter under debate.

First of all, the good senator had the audacity to criticise me because he had not heard me speak in this place about the manufacturing sector in the past 10 years. Can I remind the honourable senator that he got in here on 1 July of this year. He has not been here for 10 years. He has not been here for five years. He has not even been here for one year. That is possibly why he has not heard me give all that many speeches—because he has only been in this place a very, very short period of time.

Of course, the fact that he has been here for such a very short period of time reminds me that he got in here over the politically dead body of Senator George Campbell, a former trade union official of the same union movement but who got dumped—for what reason? He had not supported the manufacturing sector sufficiently. So Senator Doug Cameron, having knifed off Senator George Campbell in a preselection battle, now comes in here and one of the first serious votes he casts is to do the workers in the industry he used to represent in the eye, in the hip pocket: to destroy their jobs. I suppose he thinks he had a bit of practice with former Senator George Campbell. He got him out of the job. He now wants to see if he can get some car workers out of a job. Might I say, unfortunately, I think he will succeed.

This great protector of workers’ rights, Senator Doug Cameron, would, I am sure, have been a Luddite all those years ago. He is critical that people out in outback Australia, where the temperatures get up to 40 and 50 degrees centigrade, have this outrageous luxury called air conditioning. I wonder how many of his workers he fought for to have air conditioning as standard in their vehicles as they drove around in outback Australia between mine sites et cetera? Air conditioning is now a standard requirement, and he still considers it a luxury. How far behind the times is this Senator Doug Cameron? And he is the modern face of the Australian Labor Party? He will tell everyone with a Hyundai Getz that has air conditioning, which is fitted standard, that they have a luxury motor vehicle. This is the test that is now being applied by the Australian Labor Party. The class warfare shown by Senator Cameron is something I had thought we had left behind with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and with the collapse of the politics of envy. But, no, Senator Cameron is desperately trying to breathe new life into it.

Seeing as the minister has not answered my previous question, I would like him to tell us how many Lamborghinis were sold in Australia last year. How many Porsches were sold? How many Rolls Royces were sold? How many LandCruisers were sold, how many Mitsubishi Pajeros were sold and how many Holden HSVs were sold? All of those will be subject to this luxury car tax. With Rollers, you might be lucky to have sold a dozen.