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

So many of my colleagues on this side of the chamber have called today a sad day and a dark day, and there is absolutely no two ways about that: it is a sad day and it is a dark day. Here we are yet again dealing with legislation relating to a carbon tax that this government simply should not be bringing in. The government should not be giving it to the Australian people. We know that because, as I have said in this place before—and I had a discussion with somebody today about the number of times that people on this side of the chamber have said this—Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister, said, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' It is true. That is why we keep saying it, because it is absolutely true: this Labor government promised the Australian people no carbon tax. And yet here we are now dealing with yet another piece of legislation relating to the carbon tax. It is a very sad and dark day indeed.

The government had an opportunity to wait for the commencement date for the carbon tax bills until after the next election. They could have simply done that. Even if we take it at face value—some people might—that the Prime Minister did not mean to lie to the Australian people when she said, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead,' even if we take it that somehow that was not a lie, it does not take away the fact that the Prime Minister should be taking the carbon tax to the Australian people before it commences. It is as simple as that. This piece of legislation, the Steel Transformation Plan Bill 2011, is part of the whole carbon tax process that is being foisted on the Australian people, and they do not want it. I can tell you, Madam Acting Deputy President Adams, we on this side of the chamber know they do not want it. The reason they do not want it is that they understand exactly what is happening here. They know exactly what is happening. What is happening is that this government is bringing in a piece of legislation that is actually not going to achieve what the government is trying to achieve.

In the legislation that we have been dealing with up until now—the clean energy legislation—object (b) talks about supporting the development of a cleaner environment and the government's intent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The clean energy legislation does not do that. This piece of legislation, the Steel Transformation Plan Bill, does not do that. Nothing in any of the legislation that we have been dealing with today changes the climate. Nothing in any of the legislation that we have been dealing with up until this point in time reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Isn't it interesting, colleagues? Emissions are actually going to increase by 2020, from 578 million tonnes to 621 million tonnes.

It is also so interesting that no other country in the world is doing or is moving toward doing a carbon tax like the one we are going to implement—not one. That is not me and my colleagues on this side of the chamber saying that; that is the Productivity Commission saying that. So relate that back to object (b), which is to support that development. Support what? Nobody else is doing what we are about to do with this carbon tax, which is irrevocably going to change the economy. It is going to create structural change in how this country operates, in how the economy operates. The Steel Transformation Plan Bill is part of that, which is why we on this side of the chamber are not supporting it.