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

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Warringah moving immediately:That:

(1)

this House calls on the Prime Minister to stop evading and start explaining why, over the past 12 months alone, she has:

(a)

supported an emissions trading scheme, then opposed an emissions trading scheme;

(b)

promised not to introduce a carbon tax, then announced she would introduce a carbon tax;

(c)

blamed Bob Brown for forcing her to break her promise about the carbon tax, then admitted that it wasn’t true; and

(d)

then promised tax cuts as compensation, only to back flip and scrap this promise five days later; and

(2)

if the Prime Minister can’t come clean and answer these questions honestly, then this House urges her to act with integrity by seeking a mandate from the Australian people for her carbon tax and let the people decide.

I am sure that as soon as the Prime Minister stands up, consistent with what she has demanded of us on this side of the chamber, she will dissociate herself from those people in the gallery and apologise for their actions. They are here at her behest and she should apologise for their actions.

It used to be said of the late American President Richard Nixon: if he rubbed his nose he was telling the truth; if he tugged his ears he was telling the truth; but, as soon as he opened his mouth, you knew he was lying. That is the Prime Minister’s problem. This suspension is necessary to clean up the constant evasions and deceptions of this Prime Minister. She said, ‘There will be no carbon tax under the government that I lead.’ There is a carbon tax coming. She said that there would be a climate change people’s convention to establish a deep and lasting convention. There is no people’s convention. She said that there would be an East Timor detention centre before the election. There is no East Timor detention centre—that got lost somewhere in the Timor Sea. She said that there would never be onshore detention centres. There are onshore detention centres coming to a military base near you. She said that we must have a GST grab to fund public hospitals, and it is not happening. She said that the Murray-Darling Basing plan would be implemented, sight unseen. Now, it is not going to happen. She said that there would be a national curriculum, starting in 2011. Now, it is off on the never-never. She said that we must have a cash-for-clunkers scheme to save the environment. That was scrapped as soon as the floods hit Brisbane. She said that the mining tax was settled before the election. Of course, it is not settled. She said that we had to have a tax summit to put the Henry review fully on the table, and now the great disappearing tax summit has become a tax forum and soon it will be a gathering of a coffee club.

This is a Prime Minister who has almost no familiarity with the truth. She claims that China is closing down its coal fired power stations—patently, untrue. She said that the Christmas Island detention riots were in-hand, and the centre was, subsequently, partially destroyed. She said that she has believed in an emissions trading scheme all along. Tell that to the foreign minister whose emissions trading scheme she sabotaged and then whose leadership she destroyed. I want to quote something that this delusional Prime Minister said to the Australian people a week ago. Listen to this Prime Minister, in full Napoleon mode:

Faced with hurdles, I will always find a way through. Faced with choosing between taking a few knocks or doing what’s best for the nation, I will put our nation first every time, no matter what the personal price.

Why did this Prime Minister stand up and brazenly say to the Australian people, six days before the last election, ‘There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead’? Was that a Prime Minister who would always put our country first? Was that a Prime Minister who would take a few knocks for the people? Of course, it was not.

We have seen quite a few different faces from this Prime Minister over the last little while. We have seen real Julia; we have seen fake Julia. We have seen wooden Julia; we have seen teary Julia. We have seen all the way with LBJ Julia; we have seen Bible expert Julia. We have seen George Washington ‘I will never tell a lie’ Julia. The fact is: the one thing we have never seen is truthful Julia. That is the one face of this Prime Minister we will never see because the one thing that she could not say to the Australian people, six days before the last election, was, ‘Yes, I will be honest and up-front with you: there will be a carbon tax under the government I lead.’ That is the fundamental problem with everything this government does. This government is based on a lie. What did we see today? Today, we saw precious Julia—very precious Julia, indeed—

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