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

I will take that interjection, Senator Edwards. No way will we support this or any part of this, because we have promised the Australian people—and, unlike those on the other side of the chamber, we are actually going to stick to the promises that we make before the election—that in government we will rescind the carbon tax. We will get rid of it. We feel so strongly about this on behalf of the Australian people—we know they do not want the carbon tax—that we will get rid of it.

We know the carbon tax bills have gone through today, and we assume this bill is going to go through at some point in time as well. That has not weakened our resolve one little bit, because the Australian people deserve to have some champions in this chamber fighting on their behalf for the outcome that they want. They know that the carbon tax and its associated legislation, like the Steel Transformation Plan Bill we are debating tonight, are not going to change the climate one little bit. The government is off on this frolic of having to lead the world, be in front of the game and make sure we do not get left behind, with a piece of legislation—or pieces of legislation, thousands of pages!—that is not actually going to do what the government is intending it to do: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I do not know, but I would say that is stupid. That is just stupidity from the government, when we know the impact it is going to have.

We would not even need to be debating the Steel Transformation Plan Bill if it were not for the carbon tax, because it is a very simple fact that you would not need compensation if there were not a carbon tax in place. None of this should be happening. When you see the government put in place this carbon tax and then this attempt at compensation for the steel industry—as my good colleague Senator Fierravanti-Wells said earlier, those who are unkind might say that it is a pork barrel—it is extraordinary. Why are we doing any of this? The Australian people get it. They keep asking: 'Why are we doing any of this in the first place, because it is not going to change the climate one little bit?'