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

I seek leave to move a motion to provide that the Carbon Tax Plebiscite Bill 2011 have precedence over all government business till determined.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion relating to the conduct of the business of the Senate, namely a motion to provide that the Carbon Tax Plebiscite Bill 2011 be called on immediately and have precedence over all government business till determined.

The Australian people have been deceived by their Prime Minister; even Labor stalwarts such as former Senator Graham Richardson have said so. When the polls were tight last year suggesting a hung parliament, the Prime Minister deliberately and deceptively told the Australian people there would be no carbon tax under a government led by her. Everybody knows that if Labor had said there would be a carbon tax Labor would be in opposition today. Having deceived the Australian people the Prime Minister then did a deal with the Australian Greens. With 98 per cent of parliamentarians elected to this place on a no carbon tax platform, the Australian people are rightly asking how come we are facing the prospect of a carbon tax, a tax that will destroy our household budgets, destroy our jobs and, perversely, impact our environment as our clean manufacturing sector is displaced by the dirty manufacturers of Brazil, Russia, India and China?

Today the Senate can give the people of Australia a voice. Today the Senate can give expression to the will of the Australian people by giving them a plebiscite. I appeal in particular to the absent Senator Fielding. His time in this place will be framed by his vote on this measure. Will he actually put families first and give them a say as to whether family budgets will be allowed to be destroyed by a Green-Labor tax? If he does he will be complicit in every family's household budget nightmares. He will be complicit in every job lost. He will be complicit in joining the Green-Labor deal. He will be complicit in denying Australians a voice on a carbon tax. He will be the author of his own political epitaph. It will be either 'Senator Fielding saved Australia from a carbon tax by standing by his principles' or 'Senator Fielding sold out Australians to a carbon tax by selling out on his principles'. While the call is his, the judgment will belong to the Australian people, and their judgment will be very forceful.

I say to each individual senator: do not underestimate the strength of feeling in the Australian community at this deceptive Green-Labor carbon tax. To relieve this growing chance of disenfranchisement, this growing sense of having been deceived, this growing sense of repulsion in the Green-Labor deal, we in the coalition want to offer a circuit-breaker so that the Australian people can have their rightful say, give them an opportunity to express their views.

There is simply no mandate for a carbon tax. It was specifically ruled out by the Prime Minister not once, not twice, but many times. And when we warned the Australian people about the possibility, the Treasurer said we are being hysterical. He was nearly right. We were being historical, not hysterical, because Labor has form on these issues. If we remember, at the last election Ms Gillard had to knife Kevin Rudd because she was going to solve the border protection problem with the East Timor solution, she was going to solve the mining issue because she had done a deal with the miners and, of course, she could be believed because there was not going to be a carbon tax. On all three counts, this government has failed the Australian people, has deceived the Australian people, has failed them immensely. On this particular issue of the carbon tax the Australian people have been expressing very strong views. They want their say. We in the coalition want to give them their say. The vote of each individual senator will determine whether or not Australians get their say. The simple question senators have to ask themselves is: are you willing to trust the Australian people to get this issue right? We in the coalition are willing to trust them.