Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

No, because I am voting against this. It is you, who are supposed to be looking after the working-class people, who are the doormats. You are the doormats of the Greens, for goodness sake. Why are you doing this to the Australian people? It is very interesting that Simon Crean said that. What could we offer? What are the two alternatives? We can offer a carbon tax. There is—what?—$300 million over the forward estimates, and that is it for the steel industry. Goodnight, Irene; it is all over. We do not need Wollongong anymore. We do not need Whyalla anymore. Goodnight, it is all over. We do not need a steel industry anymore. If we listen to Simon Crean, that means it affects the defence foundation. It means it affects thousands of jobs.

What is the best way to keep a steel industry open in this nation? I agree with it. It is: do not go forward with a carbon tax. Do not make the price inputs of that industry beyond the reach of that industry to stay viable. Why did you do this to them? You are supposed to be their allies. You were supposed to be standing behind the blue-collar worker. But you have lost it. You are now part of the manic monkey cafe of inner suburban Nirvanaville. You are having the beautiful conversations in the middle of the night. You are philosophising. It is all wonderful stuff. But you are just flushing your own people down the toilet. But they are onto you tonight. I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the common sense of the Australian people, who on talkback tonight have got your measure. I have to say they got your measure quicker than most people around here got it. They have you lined up. They are upset and they are angry, because they want their nation to be a better place. They want their nation to be the nation that produces cheap power. That is one of the things they want—cheap power. They want their nation to be able to produce food that comes from Australian farms. They want all these things that just make so much sense: affordable power, food from Australian farms, a Defence Force they are proud of and a manufacturing industry that stands behind our nation and determines who we are.

These are good people; they are making so much sense on radio tonight. They heard that what happened is that their party—they still refer to you as 'their party'—has left them. Their party no longer believes in them. Their party now believes in the Greens, the highest socioeconomic group in this parliament. That is it. They are higher than the Libs; they are way higher than the Nats—we are the poorest. It goes: the Greens, the Libs, Labor and then us. We represent the poorest. So you have decided to, in a political way, shack up with the Greens, and you are going to pay such a massive price.

I look across the chamber. This is the party of Curtin and of Chifley. These people were giants. I might even say it is the party of Hawke. As much as I wanted to get stuck into him, for all his foibles, he was something. He had that je ne sais quoi. There was something about him, and he had that connection with the Australian people. He had a sense of common sense—sort of a pull to appeal through all the rubbish. But, no, you have deserted that. You are now the party of Dr Bob Brown, with some sort of Romulus Augustus type figure in Julia Gillard—the final emperor. The power is usurped. The Vandals are in town. They are not interested in running the country; they are interested in the archaic spoils that are left in the final Rome. This is what you have done to your own people.

Why would we be part of a process that would condone, and somehow imply our agreement with, your total and utter insanity on this issue? The only message we are going to send to the working-class people—the good people; the working families of Blacktown, Seven Hills, St Marys, Ipswich, Rockhampton, Townsville and Geelong—is that we are going to make sure that, in this crazy equation between cheap power and cheap wages, we are actually the backers of cheap power. We believe that cheap power and dear wages are a good outcome for our nation, Australia. Your belief is that cheap power is evil. Therefore, you believe in cheap wages. 'If you don't want cheap wages, no jobs.' That is what you are offering them: no jobs.

You think that you are somehow beguiling them with the cunning of the serpent. You are beguiling them: 'Oh, we're going to have green jobs.' I tell you: there is another trigger for absolute apoplectic meltdown. They just cannot believe that you even say it. 'Green jobs? What are these jobs?' What do we say to the fitter and turner? 'Mate, we're going to make you a green job.' He says, 'Mate, I want my job.' Is that what you are going to say to the sparky? 'Mate, we're going to give you a green job.' He says, 'Just leave me alone; I just want my job.' What do we say to the boilermaker? My old man started as a boilermaker in the railway workshops. What are you going to say to them? 'Mate, we're going to get you a green job.' He says, 'Get out of my life and leave me. I believe in my trade. I believe in what I can do with my hands. I believe in the dignity of going to work, working during the day, coming home at night feeling tired and making this nation a better place. I believe in that.' This is what these people believe in. They are patriots. They stand behind their nation with the work of their hands and the work of their minds.

But you do not believe in it. You believe they should have green jobs. 'We'll just send them back to university. They can all do arts degrees and wander back, and they can pontificate about duck ponds and windmills. They can open up wind chime factories at Nimbin or do basket weaving. We'll all sit squat-legged on the floor and contemplate our omphaloses—contemplate our navels—and think about basket weaving with the Labor Party'—the party that used to be the party of Curtin, Chifley and Fisher. It used to be a party that actually meant something. What happened to you? As a political party, did you all fall over and hit your head?

Anyway, listen to the people tonight. Turn on the radio. Have a listen to them. Have a listen to your future talking to you—coming to you via your radio. They are not happy. I thought we were unhappy; they are really, really unhappy, because they have been smitten by their own family. They have been deserted by their own kind. They have been led down this path where they honestly thought that somehow, at the end of the day, you would not be so naive, so foolish and so cruel as to let them off.

What does this actually do? It is a question that Penny Wong says I have asked her 600 times, yet 600 times I have never got an answer. Never mind St Peter and the cock crowing thrice; we have given this lady 600 goes and still cannot get an answer. The question is: how much does this change the temperature of the globe by? Of course it does not—not at all. Then we had Mr Dreyfus on radio saying, 'Oh, India's got a scheme.' I was fascinated, so I looked India's scheme up. India's price per tonne of carbon is a dollar, and they cannot even monitor it. The price in Europe, stated to be the most corrupted market—not just carbon market but market full stop—in the world, is between $8 and $12 a tonne. What is the price in Australia? It is at $23. And where is it going from there? It is not going down. There is only one direction for it: up.

Where do these wondrous sages who now occupy the treasury bench want to take us? We do not have to live with Doctor Who; we can do it right here. They are taking us back to 1910. They are taking us back to 80 per cent less carbon emissions; that is what we had in 1910. We would all have arrived here with a couple of ponies and a gig—we would have come up here with a Trigger and a Prancer, and there would be nothing to see around here.

I am amazed at the faux nobility of the other side. Last night when they were talking they were bleeding tears of blood all over the floor about the environment and how bad it is. Whilst they were doing that, I had no other choice but to look at the ceiling. I started counting lights. I ran out of a reason to count them when I got past 220. This is the complete hypocrisy that the people out there called voters see. The temperature is always the same in here. It is never hot and never cold. It is perfect. Who pays for that, I wonder. Who pays for it to be that miracle 26 degrees? The taxpayer does. Who pays for the 220 lights? The taxpayer does. Who is going to pay for the carbon tax? The taxpayer will. What is the tax going to do? Nothing. The government complain about us saying no. Well, the ultimate 'no' is this. What will this climate change policy do for the climate? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Diddly squat.

In a couple of days time we are going to have Barack Obama, the President of the United States, here. God bless his soul, because without the United States we would not be here. Where is their climate change model? What are they doing? Nothing. What about the Chinese? Nothing. What about anywhere else? Nothing. Who are the noble saviours who are leading this? It is Julia Gillard. I imagine at night—