Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Leader of the Government in the Senate and the Minister for Employment, Senator Abetz. Can the minister advise the Senate of the jobs and investment that will flow to my home state of Western Australia from the government's implementation of its policy commitments, particularly its commitment to abolish the carbon tax?

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

I acknowledge Senator Back's very strong commitment to unshackling the Western Australian economy from the carbon tax, which will save the economy of Western Australia millions of dollars and boost investment in his home state's mining industry, thereby creating more jobs for more Western Australians. There is no doubt that the carbon tax is a job-destroying tax; it is an economy-destroying tax—

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rubbish!

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

Senator Sterle says, 'Rubbish!' Why did he go to the 2010 election promising no carbon tax and then to the 2013 election saying that the carbon tax had been abolished? Why did you say that? The reason is: you know it is job destroying and you know it is economy destroying and it does nothing for the environment.

Senator Wong interjecting—

Senator Cormann interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senators Wong and Cormann, that is disorderly, when I am relying on the minister to have the call and to answer the question. That is completely disorderly. If you wish to debate it, do so after three o'clock.

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

I note weekend reports of Mr Shorten desperately pleading with Western Australians to give him and the ALP a fresh start on 5 April. That would be a fair request if there were a fresh suite of policies being offered to the people of Western Australia, but it is all the old, stale policies of the defeated Labor government that are being served up yet again to the people of Western Australia: a commitment to the carbon tax, a commitment to the mining tax, a commitment to defending the out-of-control CFMEU and a commitment to green and red tape. I simply remind those opposite that the Labor Party cannot have its Senate lead candidate in Western Australia saying the carbon tax is gone and then his very own leader and all the Labor senators, including the Western Australian Labor senators, voting to retain the carbon tax here in Canberra.

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister advise the Senate why the legacy the government inherited from its predecessor makes implementing its policy commitments so important for Western Australia?

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

The government has inherited a Green-Labor legacy of an additional 200,000 unemployed Australians, $667 billion in projected gross debt, $123 billion in cumulative deficits and the world's biggest carbon tax. So it is absolutely vital that the Western Australian economy be unshackled from this legacy of debt, from this legacy of unemployment, and that is why it is important to ensure that the coalition's policies to create the jobs are implemented. We invite the Labor senators from Western Australia and the Greens senator from Western Australia to make that happen here and now, today, by voting to ensure the abolition of the carbon tax and the abolition of the mining tax.

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Can the minister inform the Senate of any impediments to the creation of more jobs and more investment in Western Australia?

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

I can inform Senator Back that the Green-Labor opposition are stopping investment and jobs in Western Australia by recklessly refusing to scrap Labor's anti-Western Australian taxes. Labor's lead Senate candidate, Joe Bullock, sought to deceive Western Australians by claiming that Labor are scrapping the carbon tax. If Labor are scrapping the carbon tax, why are they voting to stop its repeal in this place? What we have is Labor betraying the people of Western Australia when they introduced the carbon tax in the first place, then deceiving the people of Australia when they claimed that they had repealed it, and now Labor are adding insult to injury by refusing to pass the wishes of the people of Australia, and especially the people of Western Australia, who want these job-destroying taxes removed so that their economy can grow and so that those who are on the unemployment list can gain jobs.