Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I thought I was speaking very quietly, as I always do—and you know that, Mr Deputy President. This is the problem: the Labor Party has argued from the beginning that it is in our national interest to have a carbon tax even if no other nation on earth does anything. That is the great lie. That is the lie that this government should be pinned on. The Prime Minister's dishonesty comes and goes, but that lie will stick with the Labor Party from now to eternity because it is false and they know it is false.

In other words, the Australian Labor Party believe that Australia should act unilaterally, that it should act irrespective of what any other country on earth does. They are the great unilateralists. In the end, if we act fundamentally unilaterally it will destroy our economy and our way of life, and other resource-rich, trade exposed countries will take advantage of our leverage, our legislation and our carbon pricing. In the end, that is Labor's great failure. Only when this debate matures to the level where the Labor Party finally understands that we rely on the rest of the world to act will the government finally come to some sense, but I am not holding my breath.