Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am so pleased that so many of my New South Wales colleagues in this federal parliament are here tonight. We have the member for Parramatta, the member for Newcastle, the member for Robertson, the member for Hughes and the honourable member for Mackellar, as well as me as the member for Riverina. New South Wales people are sensible people, as is everybody in this chamber. We know how vital it is that members of this chamber support the amendment to the Clean Energy Bill 2011 and accompanying bills to make commencement of the carbon tax contingent on a proclamation of the next parliament. Almost 14 months after the Prime Minister uttered those infamous words she will live to regret, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead,' Labor is about to impose the world's costliest carbon tax at a time of global economic despair. Labor is doing this without first taking it to the people of Australia—or is it? Yes, in fact it has already gone to the people of Australia. We have already polled members of the public, the voters of this great nation, as to what they thought of a carbon tax. The Greens' policy included a carbon tax in the lead-up to the 2010 election and they fielded candidates in each and every one of the 150 electorates across Australia. The votes came in and—guess what!—the Greens won just one seat and the other 149 electorates went to candidates who said they would not support a carbon tax. The people have already spoken. Australians resoundingly rejected a carbon tax then and, to be fair to the 12 ½ million voters, Labor should do the right thing and give the people another say. Labor needs to do this because it did not listen last time at the 2010 election.

The coalition listens and acts accordingly—always. All of the coalition's recent major policy reforms—however challenging, confronting, difficult and electorally unpopular—were put to the people to decide. These included Fightback in 1993, the goods and services tax in 1998 and Work Choices in 2007—all taken to elections. The coalition accepted the will of the people. That is democracy. That is the Nationals-Liberal way. Labor ought to do the same thing with its carbon tax initiative and support this amendment and defer the introduction of the clean energy bills until the 44th Parliament.

Remember this: those who back the Prime Minister do so at the behest of the unrepresentative Greens against the express wishes of the people they purport to serve and at their own peril at the next ballot. Voters have long memories. They will remember the great untruth they were fed before the last election. They will remember, if these 19 bills become law, the Independent and Labor members who did the double-cross. They will remember and will cast their vote accordingly. Labor does not have a mandate to introduce such a job-destroying, lifestyle-changing policy. This is bad policy from a bad government, which gets worse by the day. The Prime Minister will be, do and say anything to stay in the Lodge. She says she cares about jobs. In truth, she does: her job and those of some, if not all, of her frontbench. She cares not about many of her backbenchers because if she did she would not be introducing legislation which will do such irreparable harm to the now strong but soon to be devastated manufacturing and mining electorates they represent—seats once regarded as Labor heartland, which the Prime Minister in her haste to kowtow to the rabble that is the Greens surely knows will change at the next election. Here tonight is the opportunity for Labor MPs to do the right thing: show some conviction, some fortitude and some backbone. Support this amendment. Your leader might not like it, but your constituents surely will. This carbon tax is unpopular, unnecessary, unwanted and undemocratic.

The member for Lyne wants to let the market rip. He repeated the same line to me just this afternoon, but let us not rip out jobs, family incomes and hope for the future for the sake of a whim of the Greens who want a carbon tax. We hear so often from those opposite about clean energy jobs, but what are they and where are they? The price of carbon will start at $23 per tonne, which will add to the cost of everything we do every day of our lives yet will do nothing for the environment. Even on Labor's own figures, it will rip a trillion dollars out of the national wealth over the next 40 years. It will make our businesses less competitive. It will be a $515 a year slug to Australian families and it will cost jobs.

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