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

Yes, it was that bad, Senator Xenophon. Senator Evans could not fill his time and could not justify his position. Senator Brown was petulant and then could not come up with any defence and Senator Wong likewise. Even if all the allegations against the coalition were to be accepted, which of course they are not, it does not in any way, shape or form justify the deceit that was perpetrated on the Australian people. I say to you, Senator Xenophon, with the greatest of respect: this was deceit. For example, we went to the Australian people with a GST, the Australian people re-elected us and we came into the Senate and negotiated a compromise with the Australian Democrats. In those circumstances, compromise is acceptable and understandable. But when you go to an election saying, ‘Absolutely no carbon tax,’ there is no room for compromise unless you are willing to engage in deception of the Australian people.

As I said before, there were only two members of the House of Representatives elected in support of a carbon price or a carbon tax. There are only five senators who specifically said in their election materials that they support a carbon tax. As a result those seven are outweighing 210-plus other parliamentarians who have a mandate from the Australian people to oppose a carbon tax. Indeed, everyone on my side and everyone on the Labor Party’s side in both places was either elected or re-elected on that solemn promise of no carbon tax. So with the greatest of respect to Senator Xenophon, for whom I have a fondness and a great regard, there is no way you can argue that this is somehow compromise. If this is the new paradigm, the new paradigm is that the Greens have taken control of the Labor Party agenda. The tail on the Labor dog, which had been painted green, has now morphed into a full backbone and skeleton which are now in full control of Labor Party policy.

Many things have been said in this debate, including one which I want to debunk—indeed, Senator Wong debunked it herself. In one breath, she said, ‘The coalition has no policy on climate change,’ then, in her next breath, she said, ‘Their policy on climate change is far too expensive.’ You cannot have it both ways: we either do have a policy or we do not. Just in case there is any doubt, we had a specific policy at the last election entitled The coalition’s direct action plan: environment and climate change. When you open the cover you will see that the very first line reads:

A Coalition Government will implement a climate change strategy …

Then there are 30 pages of detailed policy outlining that strategy. So do not come in here and compound your deceit of the Australian people by saying that there was no coalition policy in this area, when there was a clear policy articulated in 30 pages in which we were willing to put ‘climate change’ in the very first sentence. That is in such stark contrast to the Labor Party policy speech where in 5,400-plus words ‘climate change’ was finally mentioned in the very last paragraph. In amongst a lot of the ‘Yes, we will,’ policies, climate change was No. 5 out of nine. So we clearly do have a policy, a practical direct action plan, which will not impact on everybody’s lifestyle.

Interestingly enough, when we made the allegation that this will impact on every single Australian household budget, not one of the government speakers referred to compensation. Not one of them referred to compensation as being part of their package—very telling. Not one of them was willing to answer Senator Barnaby Joyce’s question as to whether or not this would impact on the price of petrol. What they did was seek to obfuscate by mentioning all manner of things other than the actual issue that is at stake. The issue that is at stake is the deceit of the Australian people. It was writ large by Ms Gillard doing a complete backflip on this policy. She knows that the paradigm in this parliament, as determined by the will of the Australian people, is that over 90 per cent of the elected representatives in this place and the other place have their position courtesy of going to the Australian people saying, ‘We oppose a carbon tax.’

So I say yet again, in an appeal to Senator Xenophon at one minute to midnight: don’t say that this is a new paradigm because, if you are saying that this is a new paradigm, it means that 90 per cent of the parliament can be ignored in favour of 10 per cent. If that is the new paradigm, let that be recognised and noted by the Australian people. This paradigm is in fact a euphemism for deceit because this government knows that in relation to a carbon tax, if there were a vote of no confidence in this government on the basis that it had failed to introduce a carbon tax, we would not support it. We would support a vote of no confidence in this government, but not on its failure to introduce a carbon tax. So I cannot see the need for this compromise. If Labor were to say to the Greens, ‘Sorry, we made a solemn promise; we cannot agree to this carbon tax,’ on that issue Labor would have the full support of the coalition. If you are suggesting that everything that was promised before the last election can simply be jettisoned in some behind-the-scenes deal with the Greens and Independents then it is a sorry state of affairs and something which the Australian people, I am sure, never voted for.

I also say to the Australian people very clearly that it seems that Senator Wong, the former climate change minister, emboldened by the great success of the pink batts policy, emboldened by that great green loans policy, emboldened by the great cash for clunkers policy, thought, ‘There has got to be a fourth arm to this.’ Emboldened by the great success of those environmental policies, she thought, ‘Why not go the whole hog and just introduce a carbon tax?’ When you know how this government deals with public policy, when you have seen their failures in the area of the environment, I simply say: why would you trust them with a carbon tax?

I make the further observation that in the very interesting speech Ms Gillard gave at the Labor Party campaign launch she in fact ridiculed the coalition as being the only party that wanted to introduce a new tax. She said of Mr Abbott:

He stands for more tax in this campaign. I stand for tax cuts, tax benefits, tax relief for every Australian business.

That was after she had said to us, hand on heart:

… I want to speak to you from my heart, I want to speak to you about my values …

One of her great values that came straight from the heart was that she stood for ‘tax cuts, tax benefits, tax relief for every Australian business’. How does a carbon tax deliver on that specific promise? It does not; it is a complete breach of that promise.

Let me conclude as I started. The Labor-Green alliance carbon tax announced last week is one of the biggest deceptions ever perpetrated on the Australian people and that is why the government deserves to be censured. It is a gross betrayal of the Australian people by their government and that is why the government deserves to be censured. It is dishonesty writ large and that is why the government deserves to be censured. Every single senator will be brought to account by the Australian people on whether they believe that this gross dishonesty is acceptable. We make no apology from this side of the chamber for saying it is unacceptable and that is why we will be supporting this censure motion.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Abetz’s) be agreed to.