Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, that is right. Thank you, Senator Brandis, for that description of what has happened. That is a very horrifying thought. Having said that, I want to talk about two issues: firstly, the carbon tax and, secondly, the fraud that has been perpetrated on the Australian people by this incoming Gillard government. I still think of it as the Gillard-Rudd government but I suppose that is the old paradigm and not the new one. They are going to commit exactly the same sins of the dynamic duo that we saw before the last election. We are seeing back in place immediately after the election this doubletalk driven by the spin doctors. This is not a new paradigm; this is a repetition of the dishonesty that we saw before the election.

I just want to refer to the Prime Minister’s comments in relation to the carbon tax. Everyone knows that she ruled this out before the election. Why did she move to rule this out before the election? Because she knows, everyone in this chamber knows, everyone in the other place knows and the community knows that only one outcome will flow from a carbon tax or a price on carbon—that is, increased electricity prices. That is why, to avoid the coalition and the opposition telling the Australian people what the outcomes were going to be, she made the comment in public during the campaign that there would be no tax on carbon.

We now know that to be completely and utterly untrue, because the grubby alliance between this Prime Minister and Senator Bob Brown will wreak havoc upon this community and will lead to the repetition of further broken promises. Hang on and wait until this mob get another three or four senators to have control of the Senate from next July. The only interesting dynamic about that will be whether we get the red greens running the Greens party or whether we get the green greens running the party. Hang on for the ride with that as well.

I just want to refer, in the seconds left to me, to the Prime Minister’s comment when asked by the media on 16 September whether she would rule out a carbon tax, which she had ruled out before. She said:

PM: Look, we’ve said we would work through options in good faith at the committee that I have formed involving, of course, the Greens … We want to work through options, have the discussions at that committee in good faith.

JOURNALIST: So you’re not ruling it out then?

PM: Well, look, you know, I just think the rule-in, rule-out games are a little bit silly.

She categorically ruled out a carbon tax, and the Australian community is just about to get one. (Time expired)