Sue Boyce (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is quite interesting that Senator Carol Brown chose to speak on the topic of falsehoods. The largest falsehood of the lot is the slippery, slimy, shonky sideshow that we had over on the other side when asked for some truthful answers to some truthful questions. It is all razzamattaz—they are going to be the biggest and the best of everything: 'We're going to have the biggest carbon price.' I use the term 'carbon price'; I note that Senator Ludlam during question time referred to it as a 'carbon tax.' He clearly did not get the memo from his Labor coalition partners that they do not want to talk about a carbon tax anymore; they want to call it a price, because clearly a tax sounds like a much nastier thing than a carbon price. But whether it is a price or a tax it will, in the end, be paid by Australian consumers. It will be the biggest carbon tax in the world.

We also have the other big thing on offer from the Labor government—that is, the biggest national marine park in the world. Wow! Aren't they great at offering us big things. Of course, we have all these things courtesy of, apparently, the world's best Treasurer. Some of the other things that the Labor government are offering us include the biggest number of failures by construction companies—going into either liquidation or administration. The government are also very good at that. They have also given us the world's most unnecessary deficit. That has also been great. When you watch the world's best Treasurer Mr Swan primping and prancing around, excited at the GDP growth he has, it makes you very sick. He is using whatever he can of the mining resources to, once again, mask some of the other world-class problems we have in Australia—and they are that every industry that is not related to mining is in big trouble. You will have all noticed the retail sales going on. Senator Brandis mentioned the 1,900 jobs going from Fairfax. Reed Construction, St Hilliers and many other large construction companies are going into liquidation, courtesy of the government. Part of the whole package is the tsunami of great big taxes, great big problems that the government have brought on.

It was amusing to listen to Minister Carr. He was allegedly chiding the opposition when he said, 'It's easy to prescribe harsh medicine if you don't have to take it yourself.' Senator Carr needs to listen to what he said. That is what this government is doing; it is making industry sick and it is making consumers sick. And the whole country is going to be very sick. It tries to pretend, as it currently is, that there will not be a slow and long rise in the cost of living, which starts from 1 July, when its little package has already been rolled out—the $300 that is supposed to compensate. How long will it compensate for?

The government cannot even tell us what sort of emissions reduction they are expecting to get by 2020. Bizarrely, Senator Wong claims that we cannot really expect her to give us an annual year by year estimate. How does she know we are going to get to a five per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 if she cannot tell us how much we are likely to have per year or what we are going to average per year? How on earth could she possibly know?

How on earth can Senator Conroy say that there will be no damage done to the recreational and commercial fishers of Australia, when he has not consulted with them in any way on this matter, except to announce, 'Whoopee, once again, we've got the world's biggest whatever it is'—but at what cost to Australian industry and at what cost to Australian consumers? But of course the government do not take the medicine; they just dish it out.

Question agreed to.