Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Now that Senator Joyce has finished his metaphorical rant, we can put clearly on the record the care factor on this side compared to the care factor of Senator Joyce. The care factor of Senator Wong is 100 per cent compared to the care factor of Senator Joyce when it comes to workers, when it comes to climate change—in fact, when it comes to any policy that you want to name. The fact is that Senator Joyce and the coalition have refused time and time again to act on climate change, to act on so much of what is going to be introduced on 1 July that is going to provide support to Australian families, in the sense of tax cuts through the tax-free threshold. Something like the tripling of the tax-free threshold will be undone by those opposite. And you call yourself a friend of the worker, when those workers earning up to $80,000 will be worse off under the coalition because the coalition will end the tax-free threshold, let alone the increases to pensioners, let alone the increases to families receiving household assistance packages through our carbon tax reform package.

One thing we do know is that, come 1 July, a number of coalition senators and members—maybe all of them—will be burying their heads in the sand, because what is going to happen? The world is not going to end. The world is not going to end at all. Here they are throwing as much fear, as much smear, as much scaremongering that they can possibly throw. I have to give it to him: Senator Joyce does it so well through the metaphorical rants that he continues to display, whether in this place or through the media, that we all have a bit of a giggle. We all have a bit of a laugh at Senator Joyce because he is pretty funny with his metaphorical rants, but it is all rubbish—it is absolutely rubbish! To think that the Australian people will just buy everything that you say—that they do not actually look beneath the very, very thin surface of what you are saying to realise that it is completely rubbish—just shows the contempt that you have for the Australian people and for their intelligence in knowing that we have got to act on the science of climate change. The science of climate change is that sea levels are going to rise and that agricultural land is going to degrade. We have got to act to support those sectors, and that is exactly what we are doing through this climate change package.

Let us think for a minute about what would happen if the coalition got their way. What would happen if the Direct Action Plan that they propose came into effect? One thing we already know, as Senator Wong has shared with us today during question time, is that there is not one economist out there that supports it. You have the support of zero economists, no economists, yet you continue on with your direct action package as though it is going to be the best thing ever compared to an emissions trading scheme, which the rest of the world is going with. Not only that, the direct action package is actually going to tax individuals, tax households. As opposed to taxing 500 of the biggest polluters in this country to ensure that they start changing their behaviour, in effect reducing our emissions, the coalition are going to tax individuals. What are they going to do with that tax? They are then going to give it to the big companies. They are going to do the reverse of what we are doing. Instead of this household assistance package, supporting families using the funds that we get from the biggest polluters, the direct action package is going to do the reverse. It is going to take from individual families and give to the biggest companies in Australia. What a joke. What a joke of a policy. It is the most convoluted, inefficient emissions reduction policy that I can think of. In fact, I would call the opposition's policy a Clayton's policy. That is what it is. The coalition are not willing to support any change that our economy or our communities need. (Time expired)