John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I support the previous two speakers in relation to your position here today, Mr Deputy President. I am sorry to see it soon to conclude.

The question to Senator Evans was about the carbon tax. Senator Moore said that we are going to proceed with action and the department will decide. The fact is that the Prime Minister said to the Australian people before the election, 'There will be no carbon tax under any government I lead.' Prime Minister Julia Gillard is now leading the government—that is why she resides in the Lodge—and now she is bringing in a policy to introduce a carbon tax. That is what this motion to take note of answers is about.

Why was this policy brought on? No doubt the Greens played a big part in this whole issue and contributed enormously to the decision of a price on carbon, which the Productivity Commission says is the cheapest way to address climate change. If it is the cheapest way, why isn't the rest of the world doing it? Why is Australia the only one with a plan to put a price on carbon across the whole economy? Europe has not done that. New Zealand, which produces 0.1 of just one per cent—which is three parts of nothing—of the world's greenhouse gases through burning fossil fuels are trying to keep their price down as they know what it is doing to their economy. Last night I was listening to the radio and a New Zealand dairy farmer was talking on 2CC in Canberra. Apparently it is going to cost the average dairy farmer $11,000 over three years in New Zealand, and they are going to move in 2015 to include agriculture.

But why is this so? In the days after the election, when the Prime Minister was talking with people such as the Independent member for New England, Mr Windsor, who said, 'Will you form the multiparty com­mittee and revisit climate change policy?' He was driving this same issue with the Greens. This week Mr Abbott has done his best to try to get the Australian people to have a say on this very issue. Let us have a look at what Mr Windsor said back in 2003 in relation to Senator Alston and the privatisation of Telstra:

If Senator Alston doesn't like the wording of my survey, then I invite him to do his own survey of the people of the New England electorate.

Senator Alston has the resources to undertake the task and I would encourage him to do it.

What's he got to be afraid of?—finding out what the people want!

That's what democracy is all about—finding out what the people want and representing their views in the Parliament and I challenge Senator Alston to debate the issue in any forum ...

When the committee gets it final decision on how they are going to introduce this carbon tax—which, as a result of the Copenhagen collapse, is not going to affect the world in any way whatsoever—I wonder if Mr Windsor is going to survey the people of New England? I wonder if he is going to practise what he preaches? I would say probably not. He said he will survey his electorate when it comes to issues such as same-sex marriage. That is perhaps a delicate decision he might have to make for fear of getting offside with some of his voters. But on these issues I would be very interested to see if Mr Windsor practises what he preaches.

I will certainly survey the people of New England and the people of Lyne in Mr Oakeshott's electorate. Mr Oakeshott said that he would 'vote for the carbon tax tomorrow', but that was a couple of months ago, and now he is back-peddling at a rapid rate of knots. I will certainly carry out a survey in those electorates. We will see if these Independents, who claim to be the people's representatives, really are the people's representatives and whether they pay attention to their electorates or are just Labor Party stooges. We have known for years how the Labor Party has supported the Independents in regional New South Wales. Well, on 26 March the people of New South Wales saw through that. That is why three out of four of them have been cleaned out.

We come back to trust in government. Treasurer Wayne Swan said there was 'This hysterical allegation' by the opposition that if somehow they won government they would introduce a carbon tax.' He was denying that before the election. Now what are we facing? The government are going to put a price on carbon because it is the cheapest way to go, according to Mr Swan. But I say it again: if it is the cheapest way to go, why isn't the rest of the world doing it? The United States, China, India, Japan, Korea—they are not putting a price on carbon. The fact is that the government have betrayed their commitment to the Australian people and the Australian people will square up next time they have a say.