Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would certainly find it very difficult to support a constriction of hours on this very important legislation. But I know why the Labor Party are doing it. I understand it, because their polling would be exactly the same as our polling and it would be the same as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry polling. The ACCI poll says that 54 per cent of people in Australia—and this is over all age groups—do not want it. They do not want a bar of it. They may be interested in having legislation after Copenhagen, when the rest of the world makes a commitment. They do not mind paying their way. In accurate polling 54 per cent of the people said no and 34 per cent said yes.

But the polling went further. The polling said that the blue-collar workers are reacting—and they are more reactive than other people. The blue-collar workers have woken up. As I have said before, if it ever comes to a race between the blue-collar workers and the Greens, the blue-collar workers will always come second by a mile. That is why the rush is on. Across all age groups, 54 per cent of the people say, ‘I don’t want this until after Copenhagen,’ and 34 per cent say, ‘I want it now.’ I do not have the results in front of me but I know that that result is across all age groups. The younger people want it immediately; the second group do not want it at all until after Copenhagen; the third group want it; the older people do not want a bar of it. But overwhelmingly what has come through in the polling is that the people who do not want this legislation are the people who Labor are supposed to represent. And you have gone missing in action. You have traded your constituency for the Greens vote. You have traded it; you have deserted them. You have walked out on them.

I have been around this place for a long while and I have never experienced the pressure as I have experienced it over the last couple of weeks. If you go out to the shops people run up to you and say, ‘Please stop this.’ Then you go to church and people come up and say, ‘Please stop this.’ If you sit in a cafe people approach you and say, ‘Please stop this.’ If you go in a lift people automatically talk to you and say, ‘Please stop this.’

I have never seen pressure like this. From Friday until Monday—the day before yesterday—I think I had around 250 emails. They were not listed emails on a pro forma; these were genuine people who were concerned and who were emailing us everywhere. They were emailing you people; those opposite would be getting as many emails from blue-collar workers. We are getting emails from the business community. We have been getting emails from the small business community saying: ‘Please don’t do this. Don’t inflict me with a $70 billion tax in six years.’ I believe people are prepared to pay their way if China, America, Indonesia and India come in. They are prepared to pay their insurance premium but they are not prepared to take on the world’s insurance premium.

The Premier of Queensland had some research done on behalf of all the states, and it was buried. She was the senior premier of all the states, and they were all Labor governments at the time, I think—maybe bar one. That research came out and showed that all states were going to lose jobs in the mining industry. That research was buried. I do not know why the premiers of this nation, who are basically Labor—except Western Australia—would bury this. Why don’t they come out and fight for their people? They are going to lose billions of dollars in revenue. But, no, the deal has been done. It has been stitched up with the trade union movement: ‘Brothers, we’ve signed this in blood. You guys—the right wing of the Labor Party and the blue-collar workers—get your job choices. And the progressive sector should just shut up and lie down because you’ve got your bone: it was called job choices. So just shut up, get in the corner and be quiet, because you’ve got what you wanted.’ Now you say, ‘We’ve got to look after our progressives—the doctors’ wives; the teachers’—and they want the legislation—‘so, let’s have two bob each way, and we’ll make everyone happy.’