Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Listening to that contribution from Senator Thorp reminds me that a little knowledge is a very dangerous thing to have on occasion. It also reminds me of the maxim that 97 per cent of statistics are made up on the spot, because there is absolutely no justification for saying that 97 per cent of published climate scientists think that catastrophic global warming is created by mankind. That is what has continually been peddled by those who have become immersed in this quasi-cult of climate change and the belief that by imposing a tax upon carbon dioxide we are somehow going to stop the ever-changing pattern of climate change that has been going on for aeons.

For two days we have been here listening to the Labor Party and their alliance partners, the Greens, sandbagging the legacy of their six years in government. And what a legacy it is. It is a legacy of intergenerational debt. It is a legacy of peddling catastrophic and alarmist climate change propaganda that was always more about taxing the Australian people, putting government at the centre of business decision making in this country and outsourcing aspects of our sovereignty to unelected officials in the United Nations rather than delivering positive environmental outcomes. They are desperately ashamed of their legacy.

Senator Thorp in her contribution talked about evidence based policy that was coming forward and how they had put in solar panels on all these roofs. She neglected to say that the Labor Party in government delivered the highest electricity prices in the world to Australians. They delivered higher gas prices for all Australians. They delivered higher costs of business for every business in this country. They have driven manufacturing industries to the wall in this country. That is the legacy of the Labor Party and their public policy agenda.

Senator Thorp and her colleagues have also glossed over the evidence based policy where they rushed out the pink batts program, which, of course, cost billions of dollars to implement, cost billions of dollars to fix and, tragically, cost the lives of four young men because of the incompetence of those involved in implementing a coherent, incisive and deliberate evidence based policy agenda. And we could go on. Do we remember at the election when they said that we were going to have a cash for clunkers scheme? There are plenty of clunkers on the other side—and some of them have cashed out, let me tell you, because we do not have the climate change minister with us anymore. We have had a whole bunch cash out. We have had two prime ministers leave the parliament because they were clunkers, according to the Labor government.

We saw the citizenship council. There was going to be no change or implemented policy on climate change, no carbon tax and no emissions trading scheme until there was an agreement by a citizens convention, or council, or whatever it was called at the time. That went the way of the clunkers. We saw a debt cap. Do you remember the debt cap? 'We are going to be prudent and only have a debt ceiling of $200 billion or thereabouts,' they said. If Labor's policy agenda were allowed to continue, it would reach $667 billion worth of debt, and that is intergenerational debt. It may not worry those on the other side, but it worries me because I am concerned about the children of this country and the future of this country. It is not about the rhetoric, it is about delivering outcomes for people.

What about the school halls? Let us have a look at that evidence based policy where $8 billion of taxpayers' funds was wasted on rorts because Labor were incompetent administrators. Let us also have a look at their great defence of the HSU, the Health Services Union. They stood 100 per cent with them because there was nothing wrong. There was no rorting and corruption there, just like they stood shoulder to shoulder and man for man with Craig Thomson, a man who now faces these charges in court. We know that there have been slush funds in the union movement, but they are in denial on that side. When we call them out on their policy agenda and say that they do not have the evidence to back up what they are saying, we know full well that the evidence is on our side, because we know that that was the most incompetent government that Australia has ever seen.

When it comes to dealing with matters of climate change, let us also remind ourselves that the opposition, in government, took a policy to get rid of the carbon tax to the last election. That was their policy. They said, 'The carbon tax is gone; it is finished; it is all over,' yet, all of a sudden, for two days we have had Senator Thorp and others on that side saying how the carbon tax is saving the planet. None of them has said how much Australia's contribution is going to cut the temperature. We have heard about countries promising and signing pledges to do stuff. We have not seen any action, and that is the problem. You do not see America signing up to pledges. You do not see China doing anything; they are building more coal fired power stations. No matter how they want to gloss this and dress it up, power is absolutely important. Australia has the most expensive power in the world as a direct result of the policy agenda of those on the other side when they were in government.

They have of course been critical of policy outcomes and an agenda that will deliver real environmental benefits—that is, the coalition's Direct Action Plan. Everyone in the country probably knows that I am absolutely sceptical and do not buy the catastrophic climate change alarmism that has been peddled by so-called environmentalists. I do not believe that carbon dioxide is radically changing the temperature. I do not believe it is rapidly changing the planet. I do not believe it is a pollutant. It is important for functioning life on earth, but that is not the point. I do support proper and prudent environmental outcomes, because it is a legacy for our children and that is what our policy will deliver.

Our policy is going to increase the fertility of the soil. It is going to sequester carbon in the soil. It is going to allow more moisture to be retained. That is a net positive. Yes, it costs money, but so does everything. At least there is going to be something to show for it. We are going to plant more trees, which will be a good thing for the country. When they are planted in an appropriate area they help to clean the air, they grow and they provide a better environment. We are going to clean up our waterways. We are going to encourage more environmentalism in a practical and sensible way.

We are also going to encourage businesses and individuals to be more energy efficient. What is wrong with that? Apparently, those things are all terrible things to do, but, if you just whack a tax on something, it is suddenly going to stop climate change. If you believe that, you will believe almost anything. I regret that there are a number of people that really will believe anything, because they continue to vote for the Labor Party. If those on that side of the chamber truly believe what they are telling themselves today and what they are saying to this chamber, then it shows just how far groupthink has descended upon those on the other side. That is where the true denial is: the true denial of their legacy for Australia.

Can we remind ourselves of how many variations we have seen in their climate change policy? All of them were going to solve the planet's problems. We had much hullabaloo about the great moral issue of our time and how Copenhagen was going to change the world. Australia went to Copenhagen with the largest contingent of representatives of any nation, I think. They spent millions of dollars going there for zero outcome. What was the direct result of that? When the Labor Party returned, instead of embracing the great moral issue of our time, as Mr Rudd then characterised it, they decided to ditch the policy and knife Mr Rudd—the first bloody coup by Mr Bill Shorten and his acolytes, the faceless men. It was a coup. It ditched a first-term Prime Minister in this country in a bloody and brutal fashion on the back of his dumping of their policy that no-one in the world was embracing. It was an extraordinary performance.

We can continue. Shortly after that, when Ms Gillard became Prime Minister, there was that crystal-clear promise—you would remember it, I am sure—in 2010: 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' That was about the same time as the cash-for-clunkers scheme came in and when there was the promise of a citizens assembly. What happened after the election? The great accord, which Mr Paul Howes is trying to bring back. The great accord was entered into with the Greens party. We saw Mr Bob Brown, Senator Milne, the Prime Minister, Mr Swan and others all happily embracing and signing their accord to change the planet and deceive the Australian people along the way.

The Australian people have rendered their verdict. The Australian people have made a determination that they saw the most incompetent, disingenuous and hopeless government—two governments—in, virtually, the history of this country, certainly that I can recall. They rendered their verdict; they voted overwhelmingly against the Greens-Labor alliance. They voted overwhelmingly to repeal the carbon tax, to get rid of the waste, to get the debt under control, to give some hope to our children, and yet those on the other side are still in denial. I know some of them secretly recognise just how poor they were in government. You cannot blame them all, but the fact is they should not be here defending what is truly indefensible.

We have to get the budget back under control. We have to restore hope and opportunity. We have to restore the ability for Australians to have confidence once again in their parliamentary institutions, that their government is going to act in the national interest; not act in the secular interest, not act in the personal interest and not act in the interests of the union movement but act for Australians. Let's remember: that is what we have been elected to do. So we need to cut the waste, we need to get back to sensible policy and we need to reduce and limit the size of government, because it became engorged with borrowed money under the regime of those opposite.

It is important we get these facts on the record. It is important that the Labor Party actually come to reality: they are no longer the government. Their legacy is poor and it has done a disservice to Australia. It is time they let us get on with the job of making positive change in this country, that is going to make our country stronger and more prosperous and will restore faith and confidence in the institutions that govern our parliament.