Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

What I was saying was that the Labor Party under then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that climate change was the greatest moral challenge of our time. Then, all of a sudden, it could be dumped. Now Ms Gillard has done the exact opposite. She went to an election saying, ‘I specifically rule out a carbon tax,’ and now, after the election, all of a sudden she is going to bring it back in, so she is doing the exact reverse of that which the honourable member for Griffith undertook.

Madam Acting Deputy President, we were also told about a stronger economy in this speech. We recall that, when Ms Gillard took over from Mr Rudd, she was also going to become a converted economic conservative. She promised the Australian people that there would be spending cuts—a very wise policy move, one which we endorsed. During the election campaign, can anybody recall any spending cuts that were announced? Were any spending cuts announced in Her Excellency’s address to the parliament setting out the government’s agenda? Not one. But there were expenditure announcements relating to the $10 billion deal that Ms Gillard did with the country Independents. There we have it: before the election, Ms Gillard promising cuts so that we could have fiscal responsibility; straight after the election, delivering a further $10 billion completely and utterly unfunded.

Talking about things unfunded, we have the celebration in this speech of the National Broadband Network. What were we told about that? We were told, amongst other things, that it would be affordable. What is the price? What is the cost? There has been no business case presented. There is no price on it, yet they just make this bold claim, the spin, that it is affordable. But, when you ask Senator Conroy, who usually sits opposite, what the price will be for a connection and the monthly rental, he is unable to answer. So how can they make the assertion that it is somehow affordable?

If you want another insight into this government, all you need to do is read about the minerals resource rent tax. Do you know what is celebrated in the speech? That it was agreed with our nation’s biggest miners. What about the country’s small miners—