Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It always amazes me in my years in politics, particularly over recent years, when speakers get up and say, 'We have to get rid of this terrible government.' During the last state election campaign, I asked over 4,000 people at various meetings or talking to two or three people in the street: 'Why? What will change? In Queensland, what will change?' And I say to you: if you change governments from the ALP to the Liberal Party, what will change? In this country, what will change?

I think the first thing you would say, if you were intelligent—I do not know whether you are—is the carbon tax. I would say that the carbon tax was not announced by the ALP; it was announced by the Liberal Party. John Howard said there would be an emissions trading scheme that was fully operational by 2012, and the person standing beside him when he said it was Malcolm Turnbull. The minute you got out of office you immediately became anti carbon tax. When you get back in, please excuse me for thinking you might be back on the other side of the fence. But all I can say to you is that I asked—

See this speech in context