Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I do apologise. The Prime Minister again claimed:

There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

How can the Australian people believe anything at all that this government says? We know that this government now wants a carbon tax, and there are two very simple things that the Australian people need to understand. This is going to be a massive new tax that is going to hurt Australian people from one coast to the other. It is going to increase the cost of electricity; all of the costs that are going to be incurred are going to be passed on down to you, the Australian people, and guess what? If the rest of the world is not on board, it is not going to make the slightest bit of difference to the climate. So here we go again on this merry-go-round—down this fairyland path—the same way we did with the ETS: with the government trying to convince people it is going to change the climate. As my very good colleague in front of me, Senator Joyce, says: if taxes were going to cool the climate, this place would be freezing. It is not going to do what the government says it is going to do. The best climate change we have seen recently—the coolest the planet was—was probably in the office on the other side of this place when they had a change of leadership in the Labor Party. This government will not stop breaking their promises, and the Australian people need to know it.

Question agreed to.