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

Ninety per cent of the people did not vote for it, because those on the other side went to the last election saying that there would not be a carbon tax, and the people trusted them. The people of Australia trusted the government and trusted that it was telling the truth. That is why it is such a sad and dark day today, when we see the Australian people being let down so badly by Julia Gillard and this Labor government—cobbled together with the Greens and the Independents—who are giving them the carbon tax that they believed would not be given to them. I turn back to the Steel Transformation Plan Bill. A little earlier, Senator Thistlethwaite was talking on the other side of the chamber about how the government had to support the industry and how this was a terrific compensation package for the whole industry. Colleagues, do you know how many firms this is actually going to assist? This is out of the entire, huge industry, with something along the lines of 19,000 workers.