Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

That is a very good interjection from Senator Brandis. We have a direct plan on climate change. Labor have no plan. But that is what happens when you use the capacity of Senate committees to explore and examine issues—things come to light. And Labor have been saying, day after day, this week that they do not want that sort of scrutiny.

Labor would have taken this country down the path of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme costing thousands of Australian jobs and, indeed, having a worse outcome for the world in relation to pollution. This is exactly the same attitude that they took in relation to the resource profits tax, the RSPT. Who did they consult on that? The RSPT was in fact the brainchild of the RSGT: Rudd, Swan, Gillard and Tanner. They did not even ask Mr Ferguson, the Minister for Resources and Energy, about it. And we know what he thinks about this, because he has been busily leaking and backgrounding to say, ‘Don’t blame me. I knew nothing about this.’ Nor did Senator Hutchins, Parliamentary Secretary Gary Gray and others. That is what happens, I say to the Labor Party, when you do not consult.

The Labor Party still have the audacity—with the experiences of the pink batts, the green loans with solar panels, Fuelwatch and Grocery Choice; a list as long as your arm of their own experiences in 2½ years, making them the most incompetent government in Australian history—to this week still be saying to the Australian people, ‘This is such a good government that we do not need the scrutiny of the Senate in relation to our legislation.’ I say to the Australian people: we in the coalition believe in the role of the Senate. It is a vital role and it is a vital part of our democratic process. The Senate saved Australia from the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. A number of years ago, it saved Australia from Labor’s Australia Card, if you remember. That was because these things were scrutinised. We believe in the role of the Senate and oppose the Prime Minister’s demeaning of the Senate. (Time expired)