Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to lead the debate on this outstanding submission of Senator Fifield’s in relation to the matter of public importance debate, which is to focus on and highlight the Gillard government’s continued failure to accept responsibility for its broken promise not to introduce a carbon tax. This is the most crucial of debates taking place in this parliament and in the nation at this present time. It is crucial because it will go to the very heart of livelihoods and impact on every Australian family and every Australian household not just next year or the year after but for many, many years to come. It will place a burden on every Australian family and every Australian household if this government gets its way in implementing this broken promise for many, many years to come.

If we are talking about broken promises, it is worth going back and looking at some of the words of the Prime Minister. I would like to start with the Prime Minister on the very topic of broken promises. The Prime Minister back in March of 2009, before she was Prime Minister, stated:

I think when you go to an election and you give a promise to the Australian people, you should do everything in your power to honour that promise.

I am not sure what happened to that willingness and desire to do everything in her power to honour that promise. The Prime Minister in this case appears to have done everything in her power and everything possible to break that promise.