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

That's worth putting on the Hansard! This carbon tax, based on a lie, is going to be another nail in the way of life of Australian families, the way of life of the working families that this government was pledged to protect.

This is a government which cannot be trusted with the wellbeing of the families of Australia because it cannot be trusted with the truth. Day after day, we have examples of this government's inability to tell the truth. It is worth, just for a moment, reminding the House of that which the government sought to hide yesterday. We have a Treasurer who was told about mining royalties in Western Australia in a personal briefing with the Premier. He had at least one letter from the Western Australian government referring to those royalties. He had a briefing from his own department referring to those royalties. He even had a phone call from the Premier's office the day before the Western Australian budget was brought down, and still he had the hide to tell the people of Australia, 'Well, first of all, Mr Barnett did not communicate to us that he was going to do this'—an absolute blatant untruth; a complete, utter and absolute untruth.

See this speech in context