Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

All I can say is that the answers given in question time today to the questions that were asked by the opposition and the comments that have just been made by those on the other side confirm without a doubt that this is a government that, when it comes to the issue of the carbon tax, is devoid of any moral compass. This is a government that, by its announcement after the election that it will be imposing a carbon tax on the Australian public, has completely, totally and utterly betrayed the Australian people. But the thing is that you would expect nothing less from those on the other side, because the Gillard government will always take the cheap political option when it comes to making policy in this country rather than taking decisions that are in the national interest.

When Senator Carol Brown refers to comments that have been made by those of us on this side of the chamber in relation to the carbon tax, she needs to be very careful. Let us have a look at the comments that the Prime Minister of Australia made in relation to the carbon tax. Julia Gillard claimed, ‘There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.’ That was on Channel Ten on 16 August 2010. The now Prime Minister could not help herself. The day before the election, the Australian newspaper quoted the Prime Minister as saying, ‘I rule out a carbon tax.’ Does it get any more blatant than what the now Prime Minister said?

Having categorically ruled out a carbon tax before the election on 21 August 2010, lo and behold, she has now done a deal with the Independents and the Greens—and guess what? The promises she made prior to the election are all off the table. The promises she made to the people of Australia, the promises they went to the ballot box and voted on, are all off the table. She is now introducing a carbon tax. That is without a doubt one of the greatest betrayals that the people of Australia have ever been, and will ever be, subjected to. But you would expect nothing less from those on the other side.

The reality is that the imposition of this tax is one of political choice and certainly not of environmental necessity. Australians understand that Prime Minister Gillard, consistent with left-wing ideology, has never seen a tax she does not like or one that, if in existence, she cannot hike. The reality for Australians is that during the Labor Party’s time in office it has whacked onto Australians 13 new and increased taxes, and the Labor government has been in office for only about three years. That is a new tax every quarter. That is the way policy is made on that side of the chamber. The option of first choice always has to be to tax the Australian people. The Labor government forgets that it is not actually spending its own money; it is spending taxpayers’ money. Taxpayers have a right to be informed before they go to the ballot box if a government, when it is elected, is going to impose another tax on them.

Australians are now faced with the reality that the price of the Prime Minister’s betrayal will be paid by them every single day once this is implemented—every time they turn their lights on, every time they go to the petrol bowser, every time they use their gas, every time they go to the shop to buy groceries, every time they touch anything. Everything in this country that the mums and dads of Australia touch will be tainted by this tax.

Question agreed to.