House debates

Monday, 10 September 2012

Private Members' Business

Australian Greens' Policy Costings

8:00 pm

Photo of Jamie BriggsJamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

Set them free! The Greens are all about freedom when it suits. If it is Julian Assange, it is about freedom. But, if it is their own policies, they want them locked up! 'Send them to Gitmo,' they say! What hypocrisy. And you have to wonder why. It wouldn't be because some of those policies relate to the real intention of the carbon tax, would it? Otherwise, the Greens would not have asked what you could do with certain increases in the carbon tax.

We know what the Greens really want on the carbon tax. We know that the Labor Party will tell us before an election, 'That won't happen. We won't have a carbon tax after an election. We won't have an increased carbon tax after an election.'

Let us have a look at the policies. Let us have a look at what the member for Melbourne, Senator Milne and others have sought in their information, because I have a feeling that there may be a proposal in there which talks about how much further you could take climate change. We have appealed this to the Information Commissioner and I say to the Information Commissioner, as I have done in the two letters I have now sent him in relation to this matter in the last month, that we want him to have an urgent look at this because we think the excuse that these documents were prepared for the dominant purpose of being considered by cabinet is a fake excuse. It is a fake excuse and it is trying to get around 'letting the sunshine in'. We know how committed the Prime Minister, the member for Lyne and the member for Melbourne are to that because they signed an agreement in September 2012 which said they would let the sunshine in. The curtains are over the top of this place. So let us open the curtains and see what the Greens' policies say. Let us see what those documents actually say.

In the last week we have seen that the Financial Review has belled the cat on the Labor Party's problems in government—Labor's $120 billion blow-out. We know they have a big problem because they are agreeing with everything the Greens want them to do. Last week, the Minister for Health stood there with Senator Di Natale and announced the dental health scheme. Senator Di Natale is obviously behind that plan.

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