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

by leave—I move:

That the Senate censures the government for its gross deception of the Australian people by introducing a carbon tax after specifically ruling out such a measure during the election.

The Labor-Green alliance’s carbon tax announced last week is one of the biggest deceptions perpetrated on the Australian people. That is why this government deserves to be censured. It is a gross betrayal of the Australian people by their government. That is why this government deserves to be censured. It is dishonesty writ large. That is why this government deserves to be censured.

Let us be clear: in the last week of the campaign Labor specifically, solemnly and shamelessly promised no carbon tax. Let us just go through the list of examples that we have. Ms Gillard said:

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

Nothing could have been clearer. On 20 August, the day before the election, when things were very tight and everybody knew the election was close, Ms Gillard said:

I rule out a carbon tax.

Nothing could have been clearer. Indeed, her deputy, Mr Swan, said:

We have made our position very clear. We have ruled it out.

Then on 15 August he said:

Well, certainly, what we rejected is this hysterical allegation somehow that we are moving toward a carbon tax. We certainly reject that.

We now know that the government and the Labor Party were at all times moving to a carbon tax. So they made this specific, solemn and shameless promise to the Australian people in the dying days of the election that there would be no carbon tax. When the polls were desperately tight, Labor made the promise of no carbon tax, which allowed them to cling to power by their fingernails, with a little help from their friends in the Greens. Who in this place doubts that if Labor had said in the week leading up to the election, ‘We will introduce a carbon tax,’ they today would be sitting on this side of the chamber? They would be in opposition and there is no doubt that Tony Abbott would be the leader of a majority coalition government.

So Australians are quite right in asking today: ‘How is it that two members of the House of Representatives and five senators can dictate the nation’s policy against the policies on which 147 members of the House of Representatives and 71 senators were elected?’ It seems that the Greens tail that was wagging this Labor government has now morphed into the full backbone and skeleton and is directing absolutely every move of this conscienceless government. We now know the heavy price the Australian people are paying for this government: deceit before the election, deals immediately after the election and, now, these pathetic denials of the most disingenuous kind. Make no mistake. Labor’s promise of ‘no carbon tax’ was its election eve promise. It was express; it was emphatic. That is why Labor’s flagrant breach is such a gross and unprecedented betrayal of the Australian people and that is why it is imperative that this chamber censures the government.

This betrayal will impact every single Australian in every sphere of their lives. It will rightly shatter any vestige of confidence that may remain in the integrity of this government. It will punch holes in every household budget. It will destroy tens of thousands of jobs. And, perversely, it will make things worse for the environment in the absence of a global agreement. You can be assured that the factory owners of the BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China—are cheering on this Labor-Green madness, because they know that their products will now be able to displace the Australian made products, which are so much cleaner.