Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion to censure the Gillard government for introducing a carbon tax after ruling out such a measure in the election. Back in November, I put out an op-ed regarding the price of power. It amazes me that to this day it keeps coming back to my office over and over again. The theme of it was that we do not need any more indicators for people who cannot afford power. They are out there. There are people right now, as my mother-in-law told me—she does meals on wheels—who in winter are found in bed, not because of infirmity but because they cannot afford power and that is the only way that they can afford to stay warm. This is a disgrace in a nation such as ours that has an abundance of wealth. These people do not need any more pricing mechanisms to teach them to use less power. These people cannot afford it as it is. There are people out there who are just scraping by. Their fundamentals of life—their standard of living—have been affected because they cannot afford things.

That is why the Australian electorate went into hyperspace when Ms Gillard announced the carbon tax. They read it for what it is: yet another assault on the fundamental standard of living that is their birthright. They read it for what it is: yet another frolic orchestrated by this strange, eclectic group of the Greens, the Independents and the Labor Party. They try to sign off on all issues at the same time and come up with a policy to match. I always thought that the Manic Monkey Cafe in inner suburban Nirvanaville was dry. But it is not: obviously, it is on for young and old. This is what we are getting here.

Is this going to change the temperature of the globe? No, it is not. This is merely a gesture—a gesture given by those who can afford it to those who cannot. It is being forced on people who cannot afford it. It will make no difference to the temperature of the globe; it will do nothing. It is merely a gesture, and the cruellest gesture to the people who cannot afford to pay for it.

Then we have this myriad of terms. I have heard people in the other place quoting Macbeth. I am more likely to quote Oscar Wilde: ‘The love that dare not speak its name’. In this case, it is the tax that dare not speak its name. Fortunately, Bob Brown has helped us out in an interview with Jon Faine in Melbourne. Jon Faine asked: ‘Are you avoiding calling it a carbon tax? Even Julia Gillard on The 7.30 Report conceded it’s a tax.’ Senator Brown replied: ‘It is a carbon tax.’ Mr Faine said: ‘Call it what it is: a carbon tax.’

Today we had a peculiarity. Senator Evans and the rest stitched themselves into corners trying not to say the word. If they do not say the word ‘tax’, it all gets better, so they say the word ‘price’ instead. They are still treating us as fools. Even though the whole Australian electorate—and listen to any talkback radio show—has gone into meltdown about this, they are still trying to use guile and cunning to try and avoid talking about what they are stitching us up with. It is amazing. It is contemptuous. It is absolutely hypocritical.

I want to bring the attention of the chamber to some statements made by Ms Gillard about Mr Abbott. These were statements regarding health and Medicare. This is from Ms Gillard:

[Abbott] should resign … This minister went to the Australian electorate before the last election and gave his word, and he did not keep it. It is no more complicated than that. It does not require any more frills or explanation than that. He went to the Australian electorate and he gave his word, a rock-solid, ironclad guarantee, and he did not keep it. When you look at the transcript of interview, there is no doubt. There is no equivocation here, no weasel words and no shades of grey.

That is Ms Gillard’s statement to Mr Abbott. I ask Ms Gillard to look at this statement. She also said this:

When he is out there in the public domain, moralising and telling others what to do, surely one of the standards he should model and exhibit in his own life is truthfulness. Surely that is one of the standards he should exhibit in his own life, but he has fallen short of that standard. I think he knows that he has fallen short and feels deeply uncomfortable about it. But, like the common problem across the Howard government frontbench, when confronted with a difficult choice he lacked the bottle to do the right thing, and the right thing would have been to offer his resignation and go to the backbench.

I put your ruler across you, Ms Gillard; I put your own statements back to you, Ms Gillard. You should offer your resignation and go to the backbench, which you deemed to be fit and proper in your dissertations to other people.

This is the height of hypocrisy. This is what we have with this government. We have the selling of an office, an office that was held by great people: by Curtin, by Chifley, by Menzies. And, even though I did not agree with Whitlam’s politics, I do not think that what Ms Gillard said could ever have been pinned on him. This is taking the prime office of our nation to a lower place. Ms Gillard is responsible for what is really a heinous event. She is taking away the Australian people’s respect for the highest office in this land. She has been shown to be a person who cannot be trusted with her word—and not her word on an oblique issue but her word on something utterly categorical in how people made their decisions about how they voted.