Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do take note of Senator Milne's contribution. It would be the usual links that the Greens have with an Iraq war and the carbon tax comes into play. Why, I am not really quite sure, because when you were in your three years of coalition we did not hear any of these things from you in your cosy coalition with the Labor Party then, who were in government. In actual fact it is indeed this government which has gone about the reform that this country requires. It is somewhat shrill to see this here, as if it is some kind of new issue that has beset countries all around the world and indeed Australia. I notice that Senator Milne's contribution referred to the G20. Well, we put it on the agenda in the G20. This is a global issue. This is something that we are very concerned about. To come into this chamber and suggest that we are not concerned about it and suggest they, the Australian Greens party, are the only ones with the moral and economic guidance of Australia today—what absolute nonsense. It just highlights the Greens populism and the crass dishonest politicking they do often resort to when they reach to please their electoral fringe.

It is the coalition government that has asked the commissioner of taxation to redouble his efforts in tax avoidance. I did not hear anything from the Greens party when they were in their cosy coalition—nothing at all.