Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed I will. The ridiculous and idiotic policies of the Greens are manifesting themselves in a lacklustre and directionless government led by Ms Gillard. These bills before us are about borrowing $3.1 billion on behalf of the Australian people to mop up the damage done by the government's carbon tax. This carbon tax is going to hurt the hip pocket of every Australian. It is going to damage our international competitiveness. It is going to export jobs. And it is going to make it much harder for the families of Australia to balance their budgets every single week—and they are already struggling. They are already struggling with the rise in utility prices, rising food prices and rising house prices—all this driven by a government that are spending more than they earn. That is the major problem we have.

So we are borrowing $3 billion to fix a problem created by too much wasteful spending on wasteful government policies—policies that have been driven by the Greens. This is not in the national interest; this in the interests of individuals just handing out the Australian taxpayers' money to organisations to further the aims and the ideological agenda of this government and their alliance partners, the Greens. It is not good enough. We are all going to pay the price for this—and not just today. We are going to be paying the price and repaying this debt for decades to come.

It took 10 very good years of coalition government to pay back $96 billion of debt left after the last time the Labor Party were in power. In four years they have ratcheted up $167 billion worth of debt—in four years; it beggars belief—and they do it in the name of saving us from some catastrophe. Well, why are they continuing to borrow money now? Why are they taxing successful and productive enterprises? They should be incentivising enterprises in this country—and not ridiculous ones like windmills and green energy solutions that will never, ever supply our baseload power requirements in this country. They will not, they cannot, and we all know that. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that.

Senator McEwen interjecting—

Unfortunately, Senator McEwen, who continues to rudely interject, does not know that. She lives in that fairyland or that nirvana where, like Senator Hanson-Young, they are going to shut down the steel industry in my home town of Whyalla and turn it into the world's biggest wind farm. What a disaster that would be! That will save plenty of jobs! How many jobs are there in a wind farm? There are not that many, and there is not that much carbon—