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

When the wind stops blowing there are plenty of jobs for people to pull the blades around. Thank you, Senator Cash. There are not that many jobs there and it is not that carbon efficient, if that is what they are worried about when they put those big steel mills up and watch them catch fire and see the birds fly into them—and then there are the health problems that people complain about. It is a fancy. These are people who are living in an idealistic world that will never exist. We have to live in reality and that is in order to stick up for the Australian people. That is what concerns me about this.

How can we suggest to the young people of tomorrow that they need to prepare for their future? That means taking care of the environment, but it means taking practical care of it. It means not spending more than you are earning. It means getting a job—a decent job—and not living on government welfare or sitting back and hoping that the largesse of government will continue to feed, clothe and house you. This is what this government is driving into the community and society. People are now asking themselves: if everyone else is getting a handout, why am I not getting one? There used to be some pride in this country, where people who did not need welfare did not take it. This government is fostering the notion where people feel they are missing out if they are not getting some largesse. We need to stop that, because the country simply cannot afford it.

Whilst this government is borrowing $3 billion to support the notional clean energy future, it is going to try to tax the coalmines out of existence and then subsidise them along the way as well. They are going to be supporting the coalmining abatement technology, which I do not think will ever see the light of day, and they will be doing a whole range of other things. They are selling our nation short and they are selling the Australian people short.

I am short of time tonight, because I know there is at least one more speaker who wants his full allotment of time. But I have to put on the record my concerns for the Australian people about the direction this country is travelling in. It is going down the wrong path. It is a path without any principle. It is a path without boundaries or limits. In fact, I find that there is a complete lack of character in how this government conducts themselves. They will swear that black is white, and then the next day they will say that white is black again. And they call everyone who questions them a fool. They may say that I am a fool or my colleagues are fools. They can call me whatever names they might like to, but in the end someone has to say: the emperor—or the empress—has no clothes on. What they are doing to this country is a travesty and it is incumbent upon the Australian people to share that with their elected representatives so that when we do have an election they can remove this disgraceful government with their spendthrift ways and replace it with some fiscal prudence.