George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Of course they were not consulted, Senator Abetz. It did not go to caucus, and Senator Conroy has been going around telling people it did not even go to cabinet. Let Senator Wong deny that if she speaks in the debate. But wasn’t it significant that, in the 15 minutes during which he struggled to try and make some sort of defence of the government’s untenable position, not one word did Senator Evans, the government leader in the Senate, say in defence of the Prime Minister herself—not one word, because you cannot defend the indefensible. You cannot say the week before the election there will not be a carbon tax and a few months out from the election there will be a carbon tax and expect people to believe you anymore. That is the problem the government have. They will not be believed anymore.

In fact, Ms Gillard, in abandoning that solemn promise that was given to the Australian people on 16 August, was in a long and sorry line of Labor Party prime ministers. Who can forget after the 1993 election Mr Paul Keating and the l-a-w law tax cuts? Do you remember that, Mr Acting Deputy President—when Mr Keating went to that election and said: ‘There’s no way we will repeal these tax cuts because they are written into the legislation. This is not a promise; it’s l-a-w law’? Having won the 1993 election in part on the faith of that assurance, what does he do? He comes into the parliament in 1994 and changes the l-a-w law.