Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Evans. I refer the minister to his answer in question time yesterday when, agreeing with Prime Minister Gillard, he said, ‘We certainly regard many of the views of the Greens as extreme.’ I also refer the minister to Prime Minister Gillard’s speech ‘Moving forward together on Climate Change’, delivered on 23 July 2010, perhaps better known as her citizens assembly speech, in which the Prime Minister said, ‘I will not allow our country to be held to ransom by a few people with extreme views that will never be changed.’ Why, then, did the Prime Minister not only break her promise that there would be no carbon tax under a government she leads but, in so doing, also break her promise not to allow our country to be held to ransom by a few people with extreme views?