Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

This Gillard Labor government is a government which has lost the confidence of the Australian people. In her government's dying days, as the Prime Minister holds onto power by the tips of her fingernails, she is trying to ram as much bad legislation through this parliament as she possibly can. This Prime Minister wants to inflict as much damage on the Australian economy as she possibly can by putting through bad policy and bad legislation, and by taking advantage of the fact that her government, with the support of the Greens, has the numbers in this chamber.

Even though the government has complete control of this chamber, courtesy of the support of its alliance with the Greens, it still cannot manage the affairs of the chamber. There has been mismanagement after mismanagement. We well know that everything they touch in a policy sense they stuff up. But they cannot even manage the affairs of this chamber.

I will just remind the chamber what we are currently debating. We are debating a motion from Senator Ludwig asking for the exemption of the Business Names Registration Bill 2011 and a number of related bills and the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment Bill 2011 from the provisions of standing order 111(5) to (8) concerning the consideration of legislation. This is a rather uncontroversial matter. It is a matter which the opposition supports. Yet the government is quite relaxed about having an open-ended debate in the chamber about something that, in comparison to the carbon tax, is not actually that important.

Yesterday the government, supported by their trusted allies, the Greens, gagged the debate on the student tax. Today there was a motion in relation to the carbon tax, something that is going to have significant implications for the Australian economy, for families, for household budgets and for the federal budget and something that is going to have implications for many years beyond the bad government that currently is inflicting so much damage on the Australian nation. The government is quite happy to have a detailed debate about whether or not the Business Names Registration Bill 2011 and other bills should be exempt from a particular standing order of the Senate, but on issues in relation to the carbon tax—a tax which will push up the cost of everything, make Australia less competitive internationally, cost jobs, reduce real wages, shift emissions overseas instead of reducing them and make no difference to the environment or the climate at all—we are not allowed to have a debate, according to this dictatorial, arrogant, out-of-touch Gillard-Brown Labor-Green government.

Members on the government side of the chamber will stand condemned in history for the absolute contempt with which they have handled this issue. It has been well documented that this carbon tax is based on lie after lie after lie. We had the well-documented lie before the last election. The Prime Minister, facing defeat, knew that she needed to pull a rabbit out of the hat in order to hang onto government. The Prime Minister knew that, unless she gave an emphatic commitment that there would be no carbon tax under a government she led, she would not be returned to government. As it happens, she was only just able to scrape in, by the fingernails of the member for Lyne and the member for New England.

Senator Williams interjecting—

I note here in passing that Senator Williams has conducted a very comprehensive survey in the electorates of New England and Lyne. About 5,000 surveys were returned, I believe, which is a record.