Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is utter hogwash, and I take the interjection from my colleague Senator Fierravanti-Wells, who said, 'What a load of drivel.' A party that espouses such vitriol should look within itself before casting aspersions on others. Senator Ludlam asked the Prime Minister to leave his 'excruciatingly boring three-word slogans at home'. Maybe Senator Ludlam was a little confused. Maybe the intergalactic flight from the land of his former leader, Bob Brown, and his fellow 'earthians' gave Senator Ludlam a bit of jet lag! Or maybe he is just plain wrong—because on the Greens MPs website you are bombarded with a multitude of excruciatingly boring slogans, such as 'sick of coal', 'rallies for refugees', 'stop government snooping' and 'defend climate action', or, if you want a two-word slogan, 'save Medicare'. It is riveting stuff! But I do not suggest you go there unless you want to waste precious minutes of your time.

No wonder the Australian people are turning away from the Australian Greens quicker than you can say 'carbon tax repeal'. There is no vision for Australia's future, no plan for saving jobs, no action plan to directly help our environment. There are no infrastructure strategies, no transport blueprints, no economic strategies and certainly no plans on that website to help small businesses. There is a policy vacuum coming from the crossbenches, from the Australian Greens, without a doubt. Education policy? Nonexistent. Defence policy? Missing in action. Communications policy? I am going to avoid the pun. It is nowhere to be found.

Senator Ludlam thanked Prime Minister Abbott because:

… every time you open your mouth the Green vote goes up.

I wonder, then, why Senator Ludlam has not spoken about the election result in Tasmania and why he flees this chamber as soon as the carbon tax and the mining tax—two items of business before the Senate that, as I have said, directly impact Western Australia—come up for debate! If there are two policies that directly affect the people in our west, it is those two, yet he is not here to make a contribution to those debates. Nor would he mention today's polling prediction that on 1 July there will be three Liberal senators, two Labor senators and one Palmer United Party senator sworn in to represent Western Australia.

We need only listen to Senator Ludlam's question to my colleague from Western Australia Minister Cormann about the Greens jobs policy. It was pretty breathtaking, listening to that question from the crossbenches—from people who would not know how to run a business if one were gifted to them. We know, and the people of Western Australia know, that to think of the Greens and jobs is oxymoronic, to be straight-up. The Australian Greens have done everything they can to kill the Australian manufacturing industry, to drive Qantas offshore and to make sure that all Australians are struggling under the rising cost of living. If anyone thinks that I am being partisan in suggesting that here, they only have to look at what has happened to the economy of Tasmania since the Greens have wielded such influence in that state.

Tomorrow, my colleague from Victoria Minister Fifield will move a procedural motion that enables the carbon tax and mining tax repeal bills to be put to a vote in the Senate this week. I ask: do Senator Milne and Senator Ludlam want to listen to the Australian people, or do they want to delay this vital vote until after the Western Australian Senate election? The Greens have a number of clear choices in the days and months to come. They can support the interests of Australian workers who honestly want clean unions and a clean building industry, or they can prop up the corrupt union bosses who want business to be conducted as usual. They can continue to pursue foolish, dangerous and peculiar campaigns, supporting Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks movement or advocating for the traitor Edward Snowden.

I urge Senator Ludlam to do his bit for Western Australia and vote to repeal the carbon tax and the mining tax. The Australian people have made it known, loud and clear, that they want these taxes gone. They voted with their feet at the federal election last year. The Australian people want action, not prolonged and repetitive filibustering on items of legislation that have been before the Senate since December. In this chamber, we have now been debating the package of carbon tax repeal bills for in excess of 33 hours. I say to Senator Ludlam: do maintain your silence, because it is clearly the only sound policy that the Australian Greens have.

Senate adjourned at 20:52