Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

In responding to answers given by the government this afternoon, one thing is very clear. The most salient fact of all is that you cannot believe anything this government says. You cannot trust one single thing it says, particularly when it comes to the carbon tax, because what did we have before the last election from the Prime Minister? Let me see. What was the quote? 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' That is pretty clear, even if you are not a rocket scientist. I think most people out there in the community would hear, 'There will not be a carbon tax under a government I lead,' and think, 'If I vote for this government, I'm not going to get a carbon tax.' But lo and behold, what do we have now? We have 1,100 pages of legislation giving the Australian people a carbon tax. You cannot trust a single thing this government does. That was an absolute corker. The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, lied to the Australian people. There is no two ways about it. She lied to the Australian people.

But it gets even more interesting, colleagues, because at the time, I have a recollection, the Prime Minister made some comment that before the introduction, before even the thought of any introduction, of some sort of carbon tax or ETS there would be community consultation. 'Community consultation' was the phrase.