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

I thank Senator Xenophon for that rare insight into his party room! I am sure we are all a lot better off for knowing how things operate in that party room. To respond to Senator Fielding, it seems that Family First have adopted the Labor Party approach of getting out to a focus group to see what little slogan works and then repeating it ad nauseam. It seems as though the latest slogan is ‘sold out’. But can I say to Senator Fielding: just because you repeat it 10 times does not make it a fact. It might sound good, it might be great rhetoric, but it does not make it the truth.

The simple fact is that overwhelmingly the Australian people want this upgrade of the renewable energy target to go through. We as a coalition had a decision to make as to whether we simply blocked the legislation at this stage or allowed it through. With the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, there was no urgency for that legislation—the government itself had delayed the starting date by 12 months; there was no need for it to be carried. However, there is a lot of investment, there is a lot of concern and I think there is a community expectation that this legislation be passed as soon as possible, therefore we entered into good faith negotiations with the government.

Can I disabuse Senator Fielding if he honestly believes that the National Party sold out in relation to food processing: they did not. I think everybody knows that they are the absolute champions in this place of rural and regional communities and of rural and regional jobs—and, if I might say so, no other senator has as long, distinguished and proud a record of doing that as Senator Boswell has. So to try to pin something like that onto Senator Boswell defies the history of, what—30 years in this place?