Senate debates
Monday, 2 December 2013
Bills
Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2013, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, True-up Shortfall Levy (General) (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, True-up Shortfall Levy (Excise) (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, Climate Change Authority (Abolition) Bill 2013, Customs Tariff Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, Excise Tariff Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates and Other Amendments) Bill 2013, Clean Energy Finance Corporation (Abolition) Bill 2013; First Reading
8:28 pm
John Madigan (Victoria, Democratic Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source
I will not speak for long on this matter, but I do want to make it perfectly clear where I stand on this debate. Listening to Senator Cameron's contribution, I thought it was a bit rich talking about subjugation of scientific debate to political correctness on the government's policy of the day. Senator Abetz has said that the opposition's decision is a stunt and there is no reason to separate these bills because the opposition intends to vote the same way on all of them. That may be true, but I am not a member of the opposition so I am not sure exactly how they intend to vote on every bill—although I have some idea. I did not support the former government, now opposition, when it sought to ram through whole blocks of legislation in late 2011, including the carbon tax legislation and I have no intention of supporting the coalition government to do the same thing—11 bills together on the Red today. When the ALP, the former government, guillotined legislation, there were howls of dissent from the coalition benches about the antidemocratic nature of this practice; and rightly so. Now we have a chance for the coalition in government to demonstrate a more democratic approach to legislation and I lament the fact that they seem to be employing the same tactics. I said before and I will say again: I do not support guillotines no matter who tries to use them. As I have said, I am not a member of the opposition but neither am I a member of the government. I am a DLP senator and I know how I intend to vote and I do not intend to vote the same way on every bill. I certainly support most of the government's position regarding the carbon tax but I will save that for the coming debate. However, I do not support the abolition of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Again, I will go into further detail on my reasons during the coming debate. I will support the opposition in their move to open all these bills to debate because the Senate is a place for scrutiny, debate and argument.
No comments