Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

In deference I withdraw. I accept your admonition but I am entitled to say, Mr Speaker, that this Prime Minister broke faith with the Australian public. This Prime Minister behaved in a contemptible way by telling a deliberate untruth to the Australian people before the last election.

It is very important that we suspend standing orders and we give this Prime Minister a chance to come clean. Why did she say it? Why did she say, ‘There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead’? Did she think a carbon tax was bad in principle? Did she suffer from blind political panic just a few days out from an election? The Prime Minister must have known at that stage of the parliament that the Greens were likely to hold a balance of power in the Senate, so we cannot have any of this subsequent rationalisation, any of this obfuscation: ‘Everything changes after polling day.’ She knew full well that the Greens were likely to have a balance of power in the Senate and she knew full well that the Greens wanted a carbon tax. So why, oh why, did this Prime Minister stand up and say repeatedly, ‘There will be no carbon tax under a government that I lead’?

But that is not the only untruth that we heard from the Prime Minister during the election campaign. Remember the climate change citizens’ assembly? Remember the 12 months that the Prime Minister was going to spend building consensus? Well, 12 months have not passed; consensus has not been achieved and yet we now have, in total breach of faith with the Australian people, a carbon tax foisted on the Australian people by this bad, untrustworthy, lying government.

Let’s not hear any more from this Prime Minister, ‘I’m following the John Howard precedent.’ John Howard was a gutsy Prime Minister. John Howard was prepared to tell people before an election what he wanted to do. He would never have said one thing before an election and done something completely different after an election. So let us be absolutely crystal clear about what this government is doing: this government has broken faith with the Australian people. This government is seeking to do what this parliament has no mandate to do. This Prime Minister is asking this parliament to engage in a conspiracy against the Australian people.

Only one member of this parliament—the member for Melbourne—had the guts to say to the people before the election, ‘I support a carbon tax.’ Not one single member of this parliament apart from him had the guts to say that. This parliament has no mandate for a carbon tax. For this parliament to seek to impose a carbon tax would be a betrayal of democracy. It would be a betrayal of the Prime Minister’s word. It would be a betrayal of any trust between the people and the government. Any carbon tax that is legislated by this parliament would be the l-i-e lie tax. I would like to think that deep within the heart of even this Prime Minister is the desire not to live a lie. So do not put this tax in; seek a mandate first—

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