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

Yes, Senator Joyce. Apparently, we are going to cool the planet by yet another one of the government’s taxes—a carbon tax. That is a good idea!

On the flood tax, I could not help but be rather intrigued by the Prime Minister, in the commentary box at one of the cricket games, talking about matching the Australian people’s donations dollar for dollar. Well, guess what: that dollar for dollar matching is still the Australian people’s money. The Prime Minister does not have a bucket of money neatly tied up underneath Parliament House. She was only committing more of the Australian people’s money and what really concerns me is that Australian people are so generous. They are so generous, and they have donated so much through these very difficult times. Now that the government is talking about a flood tax these people are coming to me and saying: ‘Hang on, but I have donated. I was very happy to donate. I really want to help the people around the country who are dealing with such difficult times following these natural disasters. I really want to help them, but now the government is going to whack a tax on me. Why on earth did I bother donating in the first place?’ By all accounts the charities are saying that those generous donations have dried up since the announcement of the flood tax—a tax that we only need because of this government’s bad management and bad decision making.