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

Madam Acting Deputy President, who said this:

This is not something for which the government has a mandate. It is not something that it exposed in any detail before the election. In fact … a straight-out mistruth was told during the election campaign …

I will tell you, Madam Acting Deputy President, who said that: Senator Chris Evans, addressing this chamber on 1 December 2005 during the Work Choices debate. When it suited the Australian Labor Party they were prepared to condemn my side of politics for introducing legislation for which they claimed we had no mandate. And yet what are they doing today? Using every trick, every procedural device, in order to prevent the Australian people having their say about a policy measure that the Labor Party were elected on a promise not to pursue. That is the difference. The Labor Party used to claim to believe in mandates. So did Senator Bob Brown—though I see he has scurried away from the chamber.

But these facts do not admit of controversy. First of all, six days before the election Julia Gillard said, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' Second of all, she would not have won that election if she had said the opposite and in fact been honest about her intentions in the event that a Labor government was formed. Thirdly, the only chance now the Australian people are likely to get to have their say on whether there should be a carbon tax is if this bill is passed by this parliament. Those three statements do not admit of controversy.

What are they so afraid of on the government benches? I will tell you what they are so afraid of—they are afraid of the Australian people. That is who they are afraid of. The Prime Minister lied her way into office, and now she is trying to prevent the Australian people having the opportunity to pass judgement on the consequences of her lie. It is as simple as that. We know what the consequences of a plebiscite on the carbon tax will be, because every opinion poll that has been taken in this country on this issue has told us that by an overwhelming margin the Australian people object to having a carbon tax foisted on them by a government that promised not to introduce one and only fell over the line last year because they promised not to introduce one.