Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Hansard source

Support the chainsaws! We've mentioned the chainsaws already, Senator Di Natale. And, Chair, I would say to you that a chainsaw is a life-saving tool for various people because it allows them to clear debris, protect their homes in high-bushfire-risk areas, cut firewood and do a whole range of different things. Yet how do we know the government is not going to levy what is effectively a carbon tax on chainsaws next? It is done simply by regulation, and for the minister to hide behind the fact that you can just move a disallowance of the regulation or something else is to suggest that they have deliberately left this door wide open.

I think it is an indictment upon the government that they so strongly rule out a carbon tax by stealth on vehicles in the public domain when it is exposed in the Daily Telegraph. Then we have the opposition cheered on by their condemnation of the government's plans, which were revealed by the Daily Telegraph. Yet, once that political benefit is done, they're prepared to walk away from those commitments and not support this very prudent and sensible amendment. The only thing it does is seek to hold the government and the opposition to what their public statements have been. But, of course, they don't want that. They don't want that, because to do so would limit their ability to encroach upon the lives of so many Australians. It would limit their ability to foist a new tax, a new cost, onto everyday Australians. It would limit their ability to put some new regulations on imports and on businesses about what they can sell and the manner in which they can sell.

This is just mind-numbingly foolish, so I'll be disappointed if the government won't change their mind. I think they should be persuaded. I know the minister has been listening intently, but he has a smile on his face, and I suspect that means he's going to disappoint me. Nonetheless, I do believe we have an obligation to hold the government and the opposition to what they've said, and the only way to do that is to see how they vote on these very sensible amendments.