Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. It is essential that this parliament suspend standing orders to debate this censure motion today so that we can begin the repairs to the fabric of our democracy that has been so damaged by the vote in the parliament this morning. It is a shameful episode in Australia's democracy that the government of the day has ignored the will of the people, ignored its own promises to the Australian people and imposed on the people of this country a burden that will make their lives so much more difficult. Members of this place represent families, businesses, manufacturers, miners, farmers and other workers, but today 72 members of the Labor Party, with a few colleagues on the crossbenches, voted to make the lives of their constituents just that little bit more difficult, that little bit harder, by putting up the price of their food, the price of their transport, the price of their education and the price of their health—and some of them will pay the price with their jobs.

And this is a tax the government said it would not introduce. The government is simply bereft of legitimacy. It was cobbled together out of expediency and self-interest. It does not have a mandate. It certainly does not have a soul, it certainly has no honesty and it has subjected the whole of Australia to the will of a very small minority. The gloating of Senator Bob Brown and the member for Lyne a little earlier, the self-congratulation of the members opposite and the members for New England and Denison, and the celebrations of the Prime Minister and her cohorts only serve to inflame the sense of betrayal that the people of Australia have today. Australians across the country feel ashamed of their government; they are embarrassed that in a democracy like ours their will, their views, should be of such little significance that they were ignored by this government, a government that has simply forgotten its obligations to the Australian people.

The carbon tax will go down in history as a hatchet job on our democracy, and we need to suspend standing orders today so that we can demonstrate to the Australian people that the parliament do care about these things. We do respect the role that we play as members of parliament—our obligation to the Australian people to be honest with them, to tell them the truth, and then to deliver what we promised at election time.

Lies have paved the path to the Lodge for this Prime Minister: 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.'

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