Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Can I follow Senator McKenzie's lead by bringing into the chamber copies of the bills and say at the outset that today we have insult on top of insult. This government has gagged the gag on these 18 bills and that is an absolute shame, on top of the other shame that they have lied to the Australian public. The purpose of these so-called 'clean energy bills'—or should I say 'carbon dioxide tax bills'—is to impose a new tax. This is to raise revenue. It is as simple as that. If anyone thinks that this is going to affect the climate in any way, they are absolutely delusional. For the Prime Minister, these bills serve as yet another way of highlighting her incompetence not just as a leader but also the hopeless state of her government in its Green alliance. This is a government which could not deliver ceiling insulation without burning down homes. It is a government which could not deliver an education revolution without billions of dollars of waste. It is a government which has lost the confidence of the voting public. Now this government wants to impose a tax on every Australian to change their behaviour by punishing them for using power, for doing their jobs and for earning export dollars.

The science is not settled. The planet's climate has been changing since day one. Shame on those opposite, shame on the Greens and shame on the Australian Labor Party for having vilified ordinary Australians who dare to voice their views and, yes, their scepticism. Shame on the Prime Minister for the way she has described these ordinary Australians who just want to express their point of view.

I associate my comments with many of those made by my colleagues. Today I would like to use the opportunity to talk about the Illawarra. Whoever thought of imposing a tax on every Australian should visit the Illawarra. Ms Gillard has been visiting the Illawarra quite regularly, most recently on 18 October, her second visit in less than six weeks. Only days after celebrations in the other place, Ms Gillard came to the Illawarra, a productive region which houses industry and manufacturing, family businesses both large and small and centres of excellence in education. Already the Illawarra is straining under economic conditions and is now reeling from prospective job losses at BlueScope Steel. Ms Gillard thinks that rolling out the NBN in the Illawarra and the Illawarra Region Innovation and Investment Fund will make up for the pain of the carbon tax. She is fooling herself if she believes this. The biggest insult in all this is to the workers and the families of the Illawarra.

What is the feeling in the Illawarra about the carbon tax? If you look at the survey of local businesses you see that the Australian Labor Party received a thumping. In the state election in March the result was a resounding defeat of Labor and its carbon tax. Labour suffered swings of about 18 per cent across the Illawarra in the state election. If those opposite think that the carbon tax had nothing to do with this, they are absolutely totally delusional. The bad news for the Australian Labor Party continued in the local government elections at booth after booth, which I visited on the polling day. From down south at Shellharbour up to the northern suburbs of Wollongong the message was loud and clear: no carbon tax.

When Senator Joyce and I spoke in the mall in Wollongong, the message was loud and clear. There we had the usual union heavies dressed up as workers doing their best to heckle us and to be their usual abusive, thuggish selves but they did not take into account what the local research, through the economic reports of respected organisations like IRIS, was showing. The message that this research is showing loud and clear is: no carbon tax. Let us look at the research that was done on 300 local businesses in the Illawarra and their feelings about the carbon tax. The result was overwhelming: 68.9 per cent of businesses surveyed were against the carbon tax. That is, almost seven out of 10 businesses in the Illawarra do not support a carbon tax. Three months earlier, in June, 21 per cent of Illawarra businesses had supported the carbon tax, and that has now gone down to only 15.

When the Prime Minister visited the Illawarra on 18 October she said she was there for one reason: 'to keep faith with this region and its people'. She said:

As you undergo this process of change and transformation, you will not walk that road alone.

What a load of humbug. What a load of absolute and utter drivel from this woman. Ms Gillard, you lost faith with the people of the Illawarra, and indeed the people of Australia, the day that you lied to them and said that there would be no carbon tax under the government you would lead. So do not come to the Illawarra mealy-mouthed and tell the workers and families of the Illawarra just how sorry you feel. You have lost their faith. You lost it a long time ago. You lost it when you lied to them, so do not come along to the Illawarra and play this game: 'Yes, but now you'll have NBN jobs.' What a load of absolute codswallop. The Illawarra is absolutely buckling under—