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

The government continues to oppose a carbon tax. We will be going to the next election campaigning against the Labor-Greens proposal to put in such a policy, having experienced it in the past, knowing how corrosive it is for household budgets and how destructive it is for Australian jobs. So, we will not be going down that track. The new Prime Minister has indicated that he fully supports the approach taken by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Hunt, and Ms Bishop, the foreign minister—the proposal we will be taking to Paris. That is a plan that is workable and is affordable, without the sorts of destructive consequences that are inherent in the Labor-Greens policy—a message that they should have gleaned from the Australian people after the 2013 election but which they have not gleaned, which they have not received. Therefore, I would invite the Australian people to remind the Greens and the Labor Party at the next election of the importance of hammering home to the Labor Party and the Greens that the Australian people will not tolerate a carbon tax which is so destructive to Australian family household budgets and also to jobs. The Greens Senate leader can be confident that the government will retain the course that has been set in this area, which is balanced, which is sensible—