Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens are always going to vote for the Labor Party. It does not matter whether she has to appease them in this chamber. Of course, in the Senate after 1 July we will start to see the Greens exercising their power and insisting that they get their way on so many things. We have the prospect of Lee Rhiannon coming into the Senate, who has great form when we see her track record in the New South Wales upper house. We remember that it was her parents who founded the Communist Party and, when the split occurred, they stuck with Stalin despite the dreadful record of what Stalin was doing to the Russian people. We have a great venue for conflict coming up in the Senate when we look at that behaviour and the squabbling that will occur between the Greens.

In this matter of public importance discussion we are looking at the failure of this stitched-up deal, with the Prime Minister attempting to govern and failing to govern competently for the simple reason that she is not legitimately in that position. If we look at the carbon tax issue, it is a classic. Six days before the election, it was: 'There will be no carbon tax by any government I lead.' It was, categorically, 'Believe me, Australian people, I am telling you the truth.' That was Julia telling us, 'Trust me, I will not do this to you.' When she got in, of course that was overturned and we are to have this great big carbon tax.

Even in question time today the Prime Minister could not tell the truth. She was asked a question and she insisted that she was in surplus. We are promised one for 2013, but we certainly have not got one now. At every instance in her answers today, we saw a complete miasma of lies—a virus, if you like.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Mackellar will withdraw that reflection on the Prime Minister.

Miasma?

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