Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Listeners could be forgiven for thinking that the motion before the Senate deals with every single area of public policy other than the handling of the mining tax. Let us go straight to the point with the deception of the Australian Greens contribution. The motion before the Senate is not a motion of no confidence in the government. It is a no-confidence motion in the handling of the mining tax—a specific issue that Senator Milne herself announced at the National Press Club as the reason for ripping up the agreement with the ALP. We have given the Australian Greens the opportunity to show their colours, to show whether they actually meant it.

We now know what the Greens will do. They misrepresent the motion and by misrepresenting the motion they give themselves an excuse not to vote for it. The Australian people will see through that. They will see through the faux foot-stomping of Senator Milne at the National Press Club by the vote of the Australian Greens today. The motion before us is not about curing asthma or anything else. It is about the mishandling of the mining tax—an issue that Senator Milne addressed at length at the National Press Club.

Today she and her fellow Greens will have the opportunity to vote on whether or not she has and the Greens have confidence in the way the government handled the mining tax. By their vote they will show that Senator Milne on the national stage at the National Press Club will say one thing and do the exact opposite in this chamber. That should not surprise, because when they signed the deal with the Australian government, with the Australian Labor Party, they promised a new era of consultation, a new era when the parliament would be respected. What have they done: 150 times they have joined with the ALP to guillotine legislation through this chamber. When the coalition did it when it had a majority in the Senate, like the Greens and Labor do now, we did it on 30 occasions. It was an affront to democracy, it was an outrage, and that is why the Greens had to be given the balance of power in the Senate. Well, they were given it, and what have they done with it: guillotine five times as many bills through this place than the Howard government did. The Australian people now know that the safest place to put the Australian Senate is in the hands of the coalition, because the Greens cannot be trusted. They, along with the ALP, are the big guillotiners in this place.

Let us be quite clear as to the ALP's approach and go through them speaker by speaker. When you have no capacity to defend, what does Senator Wong do: she descends to abuse, personal abuse, vilifying individuals. It is the old hoary ALP tactic, isn't it? If you do not have anything to run with, just attack. That is what they are doing to Mr Abbott relentlessly, attacking and attacking him. Why? Because they have got no policies to sell, no record to sell to the Australian people. Let us be absolutely clear on this. The ALP's crisis management 101 agenda is attack—attack personally, attack often and avoid the topic. That is what Senator Wong did for virtually all her 20 minutes. And Senator Kim Carr, well, why would you even bother?

But then we have Senator Milne and Senator Di Natale from the Australian Greens misrepresenting the motion. In fairness, I think they are intelligent people. I am sure they are not in need of the Prime Minister's reading lessons but they might like to avail themselves of that facility. If they were actually to read the motion that is before the Senate, they would know that it is not a vote of no confidence in the government full stop; it is a vote of no confidence in the government's handling of the mining tax. So you cannot pretend that you hate the way this was done, that it was a secret deal with big miners, but then not vote for it.

I am not sure if the Greens actually moved their amendment to the motion. I understand they have. This is it: to get rid of the no-confidence motion and put in its place:

The Senate condemns the Government's failure to put in place a mining tax which raises sufficient revenue from—

this is a clearly defined economic term that everybody will know—

the big miners—

Who are they? Enumerate them. How big do you have to be to be a big miner? As big as Clive Palmer? Sorry, that was a personal comment. Do you have to be personally big, does your company have to be big or does your mine have to be big? What is the definition of a big miner? It continues, and this is a doozy:

to fund Australia's long-term needs.

There is one thing about the mining tax that we always said, that mining goes in booms and regrettably also in busts. Therefore you cannot rely on an ongoing basis on the funding from such a tax. Indeed, in its previous manifestation it was called a super profits tax. Do those opposite honestly believe that the mining industry will continually be in a position of super profit making? Of course not. It has never happened in history; it is very unlikely to happen in the future, especially not under this government. So how can you predicate all this expenditure on it? Senator Di Natale gave us a great speech about how it could help asthmatics, people with heart issues, help education, help all sorts of areas. These are all worthy causes, but what happens when the mining boom, as it inevitably will do, turns into decline and bust? Where is the money going to come from? The Greens have no answer, the ALP have no answer, and that is why we at all times were indicating the terrible flaw in the system of the mining tax.

It was the Greens that rushed with the ALP to guillotine this legislation through the place. They knew so well. They were not offended by Ms Gillard and Mr Swan doing a secret deal with the three CEOs of Australia's larger mining companies. But it is interesting, isn't it? Just think if we as a coalition would have sat down in secret doing a deal with mining companies on the taxation regime. It would be the end of democracy as we know it, with the need for the Greens to move a motion of no confidence in the government full stop, not only on the handling of the mining tax. It would be indicative of everything that pervades the coalition. But when their mates the Labor Party do it, not a squeak out of the Australian Greens. Today, despite their attempt to grossly misrepresent the motion that is before us, the Australian people will be a wake-up that Senator Milne just engaged in a little bit of faux foot-stomping at the National Press Club and did not mean what she said.

She did not say what she meant, because at all times she will keep this government on life support, irrespective of how bad its policymaking is, irrespective of how bad its policies actually are.

Today, having spent so much time at the National Press Club, Senator Milne has the opportunity of voting for a very simple motion which says that this Senate has no confidence in the government's handling of the mining tax. We on this side have no doubt that the Australian people have no confidence in the government's handling of the mining tax. It is obvious that Joel Fitzgibbon, the Chief Government Whip, has no confidence in the government's handling of the mining tax. There is no doubt that the leader of the Labor Party in Western Australia has no confidence in the Labor government's handling of the mining tax. We, as a coalition, agree with them, and we would invite the Greens to join with us on that basis.