Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked today relating to a proposed carbon tax.

I assume that the two ministers at the table will not be speaking in relation to this motion. I assume that Senator Brown is not and, therefore, I assume that Senators Feeney and Pratt will be speaking on this matter today. I ask them this question and I want them to give the chamber the answer: 12 months ago were the Australian people entitled to believe the Prime Minister when she said, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead'? Were they entitled to believe her when she made that comment 12 months ago?

The answer to that question must surely be yes. But I will wait for Senators Pratt and Feeney to confirm that the answer must be yes to that simple question of whether the Australian people were entitled to believe their Prime Minister 12 months ago when she told them, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' Were the people in the gallery in front of you, Mr Deputy President, entitled to believe their Prime Minister when she said to them that 'there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead'? The answer to that question must be an emphatic yes, they were entitled to believe it.

So the next question for Senators Feeney and Pratt must be: on what basis do you now justify what was a clear lie to the Australian people? Rise today and tell the chamber and the community on what basis you justify a lie told 12 months ago. If there is no justification, and there can be no justifi­cation, stand up and tell this chamber, tell the people in the gallery, the people listening today and the thousands of people who were demonstrating today on what basis you justify not going to the Australian people for a fresh election to let them vote on this issue.

There are three key issues; there are three key answers to three key questions. I will be very interested to hear, Senator Feeney and Senator Pratt, what your responses will be. You cannot leave this chamber today without answering those questions because they are fundamental questions about the public policy debate we are having at the moment. They are fundamental questions which you must answer. The Australian people surely were entitled to believe their Prime Minister when she told them six days before the last election that there would be no carbon tax. You and I know, Senator Feeney, through you Mr Deputy President, that had she been truthful to the Australian community the outcome of that election would have been entirely different.

It was a bald faced lie designed to put people at ease about a carbon tax prior to the election. She either knew it was a lie at the time, having had the discussions with Senator Brown before then, or knows there can be no justification whatsoever for her behaviour since. If the Australian people are not able to rely on their Prime Minister to be truthful with them about such a significant public policy matter, how can they believe anything else she tells them? How can they believe her? This debate is about the Prime Minister's integrity. This debate is about the sorts of matters that Senator Wong refused to answer today. We saw utter incompetence from this senior government minister. She had absolutely no idea of the implications for the freight sector, the small business sector and regional and rural Australia in the answers she gave. She had absolutely no idea whatsoever. My home city of Ballarat, along with Geelong and Bendigo, are great manufacturing centres in regional Victoria.

Senator Feeney, you and I know what the outcome of this tax will be. You and I know what your own union leaders are saying about this insidious, toxic tax. You know what effect it will have on the coal industry and you know what jobs will be at risk. You have provided absolutely no level of comfort for anyone outside regional and rural Victoria, let alone metropolitan Australia, in relation to what this tax will do.

Let me go very quickly through some of the ramifications, all of which are undeniable and all of which beggar belief—and it beggars belief that an Australian Prime Minister can do this to her own people. A family on a single income of $65,000 a year will receive no compensation— (Time expired)