Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to address the most dangerous issue facing Australia right now: the Labor-Greens carbon tax. Australians in the majority do not want this tax which will clean out their wallets and cost jobs without doing a single thing for the environment. This debate should be about the best way to achieve a five per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020. On one hand, you have the Labor-Greens tax, which will add hundreds of dollars to the average household budget and cripple our mining and aluminium industries forcing jobs, investment and emissions offshore. On the other hand, you have the coalition's direct action plan, which will use incentives and investment to make a real change in people's habits. The Labor-Greens alliance has made this a debate about party politics. Prime Minister Gillard has sacrificed the will of the people she represents for her own political desires. She has fallen to the whim 'co-Prime Minister' Bob Brown in order to stay in government. The frustration and anger in my electorate of Paterson is palpable. For Labor, politics no longer means representing the people. It means representing self interest. Take, for example, this today. Adela from Duckenfield wrote to me to say:

Why are Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan so determined to push this through when there is so much opposition? It will do absolutely nothing to assist in a change of carbon emissions in Australia and yet will cost our country untold amounts.

Aaron, from Raworth, wrote:

I cannot fathom how this insipid, incompetent, weak, pathetic, directionless, soul-less, foolish government is not getting the message that working Australia will not tolerate this tax, let alone from a prime minister who blatantly lied to Australians.

We cannot take more taxing; working families and working Australians are struggling and we have had enough.

Please help working families in your electorate Bob. Keep working hard for the people of Paterson and keep working for the will of the silent majority who aren't out there protesting, who aren't pushing the ideals of a green fascist party led by extremists who are holding an incompetent government desperate to hold on to power. We are just trying terms of reference make ends meet.

People are desperate to have their say on this nation-changing issue. They have suggested a referendum, plebiscite, new election—the list goes on. These people are not heartless. They want to know what they can do to improve the environment and reduce carbon emissions. They just know that a tax will not achieve it.

I was pleased to hear the Prime Minister promise yesterday that she would go and meet with the people directly to talk about her tax. I have already sent her an invitation to come to my electorate of Paterson to participate in a town hall discussion. That way, Ms Gillard can address the concerns about job losses and rising household budget pressures. The Prime Minister can also try to explain to local residents how on earth a tax will help the environment. I look forward to her response and yet for some reason I do not think that she will accept.

After all, this is the same Prime Minister who promised just days before the election, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' Her colleague the Treasurer also said in the August before the election:

Certainly what we rejected is this hysterical allegation that somehow we are moving towards a carbon tax.

And yet, here we are. What an amazing turn around. Talk about being creative with the truth.

The people of Paterson do not want a carbon tax. Judging by the number of people calling me from the member for Lyne's electorate, they do not want a carbon tax either. The same goes for callers from the electorates of Hunter, Newcastle, Charlton and Shortland. They call my office because they know they fall upon deaf ears when they ring those members. That is why I am here fighting for the future of our country, which will be so heavily disadvantaged by a carbon tax, not only economically but also environmentally. I urge the Prime Minister and her colleagues to listen to the people who voted for them.

I end with a couple of facts. Firstly, there are 146 members of this House of Representatives who ran at the last election with a no carbon tax policy. Only four members in this House ran on a pro-carbon tax policy. Secondly, the Treasurer called the coalition 'hysterical scaremongers' when we tried to tell the people there would be a carbon tax under a Labor government. This debate is about basic democratic principles because the ALP, the Greens and Independents have wrested democracy from the Australian people.

The Prime Minister, at the top, is arrogantly defying the will of the people, talking down to them in the name of a dirty deal with the Greens. Talk about dirty deeds done dirt cheap. This is a bad tax. We do not want it and we do not need it. (Time expired)