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

Thank you, Madam Chair. Of course my remarks are entirely relevant to the legislation. I note that Labor-Green government senators are very touchy about this particular aspect. Here we have Senator Milne who, in her contribution during the committee stage of this bill, five minutes ago made assertions as to what the coalition may or may not do after the next election. I am talking about the amendment which Senator Milne was talking about, which is clearly on the table and has been put on the table by the coalition, an amendment which says that this legislation should not come into effect until after the next election so that the people of Australia can actually have a say before this bad tax is imposed on them, this bad tax which will do nothing to reduce global greenhouse emissions but which of course will impose significant sacrifices on them.

Let us be very clear. Talking about these 1,000 pages of legislation, it is one big dog's breakfast. I do not know which part of the dog's breakfast is the responsibility of Senator Milne and which part of it is the responsibility of Prime Minister Gillard but that is one big dog's breakfast. We know that we have a green tail wagging the red Labor dog, which is why we have this dog's breakfast of a carbon tax. We know it is a tax which many people on the inside of the Labor Party do not want.

In responding to Senator Milne's assertion that somehow we would not be rescinding this carbon tax, let me make it very clear. My expectation is that after the next election opposition leader Bill Shorten will rush as fast as he can to sit beside the next prime minister, Mr Abbott, to help rescind the carbon tax. In reflecting on what might happen after the next election, let me make another analogy. I have been quite amused during this debate as the Labor-Green government senators have voted gag after gag to guillotined debate, to prevent proper scrutiny through the committee process and so on.

I have been intrigued because we have had various senators say, 'That's what you did with Work Choices. You should be used to this.' That is a great approach! That worked really well for us, did it not? I cannot believe that as a government you have not learnt from our mistakes and that you are going down the exact same path. We have learnt from our mistakes. We recognise that what we did with Work Choices was wrong. We recognise that the processes we followed were wrong, but look at the Labor-Green senators. They are trying to justify why they are moving gag after gag, why they are voting to guillotined debate. They are justifying it by saying, 'That's what you did with Work Choices.' Good luck to you, I say.

You keep treating the Australian people with absolute contempt. You keep pushing the carbon tax down their throats, which you know they do not want. That is the crux of it. That is why Senator Milne is so offended by our amendment which would have the effect of giving the Australian people an opportunity to have a say. You say it is important economic reform, you say it is in our national interest, you say it is that the best thing since sliced bread. You say it is going to solve all of the errors of the world, that all the floods will stop, all the droughts will stop, the climate will cool and there will be no more rising sea levels. If it is so good, why are you so scared to give the Australian people an opportunity to have their say?

The reason you want to do whatever you can to take this to an election is that you know that the Australian people do not want a carbon tax. The reason the Australian people do not want this carbon tax is that they know it is bad policy. They know it will do nothing to reduce emissions. They know that you want to impose significant sacrifices on them, sacrifices which are not going to make a difference. Quite frankly, that is cruel. That is absolutely cruel. That is why, before the last election, the Prime Minister thought it was necessary for her to give a commitment that there would be no carbon tax under the government she leads. She knew that this was about as popular as the plague.

Throughout the last parliament we had the debate on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. People need to remember the reason the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme did not get through this parliament is the both coalition and the Greens voted against it. Not just the coalition, but the coalition and the Greens voted against the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Let me make something else very clear: the coalition voted against the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme when Malcolm Turnbull was the leader and when Tony Abbott was the leader. We voted against the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme twice.

The reason we first voted against the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme between June and August 2009 was—