Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Abetz. I refer to his statement following the Senate's rejection of the carbon price repeal bills today in which he confirmed the government was, 'willing to support amendments circulated by the Senate Leader of the Palmer United Party'. Can the minister please advise the Senate which of the three sets of amendments circulated by the Palmer United Party represent Abbott government policy and will the carbon price reduction obligation apply to all businesses in the domestic economy or not?

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

Let us get one thing very clear: this is Palmer United policy which they submitted to the Senate. As I understand it, the Palmer United Party are proposing that ultimately their third version of amendments should be the amendments they would seek to put to the Senate. They were unable to do so because of a technical situation as a result—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Pause the clock. Minister, we will wait until we get silence.

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

The Leader of the Palmer United Party in the Senate told the Senate that it was on the advice of the Clerk that he had withdrawn his amendments. So let us be very clear, there is no concern here. The amendments need to be introduced in the House of Representatives before they can come to this place and, as a result, that is what the government will be seeking to facilitate next week, to ensure the repeal of the carbon tax. The Labor Party interjectors told the Australian people we would never have a carbon tax, then went to the last election with this brochure here, saying that the carbon tax had already been removed, and they are still voting to keep the carbon tax on life support. We had a technical issue today. We look forward to working with the crossbenchers next week to achieve our common goal of removing the carbon tax.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. The minister did not answer the last part of my question, whether or not it is the government's position that the carbon price reduction obligation will apply to all businesses. I ask him to answer that question.

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

That is a very open-ended question in relation to—

Senator Kim Carr interjecting—

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Carr.

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

One of the good things about the Senate sitting by itself is that the Australian people are now seeing the unlauded behaviour of the Australian Labor Party.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Pause the clock. We will not continue until there is silence. Senator Carr, you are delaying your leader's opportunity for a further supplementary question.

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

What these amendments will do is to ensure that the ACCC has additional powers to be able to ensure—

Opposition senators interjecting—

and they have responsibility for businesses, Senator Conroy. They will be able to deal with the issue of ensuring that the price reduction that will flow—in other words, $11 million per day impost, which Senator Wong and her team voted to retain again today. That impost will be removed from the— (Time expired)

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I refer to the Prime Minister's promise before the last election:

There will not be deals done with independents and minor parties under any political movement that I lead.

Is that still the position? It did not last long, did it?

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There was part question and part statement in that. Minister, you can answer which part of the question you wish.

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

Thank you, Mr President. The party that promised the Australian people no carbon tax has hardly any credibility to come into this chamber, arguing about consistency—

Senator Kim Carr interjecting—

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Carr.

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

Can I say to the Australian people that the then Leader of the Opposition and now Prime Minister said that he would not do any deals with others to form government—unlike the dodgy deal that the Australian Labor Party did with the Australian Greens, to their eternal shame. Coming from the state of Tasmania, Mr President, as you and I do, we had the double whammy of a state Labor leader saying, 'No deals with the Greens' and then a federal Labor leader saying, 'No deals with the Greens' and then both of them ratted off their promise to the electorate and did a deal with the Greens and destroyed the economy in the process. (Time expired)