Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to contribute to this matter of public importance. We should be discussing this incredibly important topic rather than being diverted into political games and nuances. What we saw today in question time seems to be the new political strategy of this government—that is, name calling and carbon vilification of anybody who questions or even criticises anything the government may say about its planned tax on carbon dioxide. This matter of public importance is really about the government’s taxation measures that are disadvantaging our competitive advantage as a country and the standard of living of our citizens. It is interesting that—when the government has nothing else to say and no credible argument to present, to back its case for a tax that seeks to punish and harm and penalise every individual, every business, every activity, every step of production, every service, every area where wealth is sought to be created or every point of consumption or every stage of an input to any activity or business that anyone is engaged in, when it cannot come to address how on earth that is going to help—all it can do is revert to former Prime Minister John Howard. I can assure this parliament of one thing: Julia Gillard is no John Howard.

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