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

I do not know what the Labor Party interjections are about. I refer to this brochure again: 'Kevin Rudd and Labor remove the carbon tax.' If we were to believe the very policy on which Senator Moore got herself re-elected to this place—that is, the carbon tax had been removed—sorry; what are these bills doing here? The carbon tax, we are agreed, still has to be removed. It is still on the legislative books, is it not?

We, as an opposition, said to the Australian people: 'If you elect us on 7 September, we will have as the very first item of business in the new parliament the repeal of the carbon tax.' And we lived up to that promise. Prime Minister Abbott introduced the repeal of the carbon tax as the very first item of business in the new parliament. So it should be no surprise to those opposite that we, as the very first item of business in this new Senate, would seek to ensure the repeal of the carbon tax.

I say to those opposite: you had your fun last month. Yes, the dead hand of the old Senate reached out and attempted to control that which will happen in the new Senate. And that is why the motions were moved to seek to delay the will of the Australian people.

I have been asked: is this a measure that is frustrating the government? More importantly, this measure, or the motion moved by those opposite last month, was frustrating the Australian people. It is frustrating the Australian economy. It is frustrating the world's environment to boot. So in every possible respect—