Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

That is exactly right, Senator Abetz, nothing could be clearer: 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' Yet, look at where we are today, on 31 October 2011. We are having to debate the suspension of standing orders to give every single member on the other side an opportunity to redeem themselves—an opportunity to say to the Australian people, 'What we said the day before the election we actually meant.' But do you think they will do that? Absolutely not. The Australian people would expect nothing less from those on the other side. Why is that? Because the Australian Labor Party will always take the cheap political option instead of doing what is right in relation to the national interest.

The policy that the Labor Party are asking the Senate to vote on today is all economic pain for no environmental gain. It is not senators on this side who are saying that. The Australian Labor Party's own documentation, which they have released, on the impact of the carbon tax clearly shows that, after this toxic tax is imposed on the people of Australia, jobs will go offshore while electricity prices will increase, and emissions in Australia will also increase. You really need to ask yourself why the Australian Labor Party are imposing such a toxic tax on the people of Australia when the Australian Labor Party's own modelling clearly shows that this tax has nothing to do with the environment; it is all about filling a big black hole.