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

That, of course, is what we have been proposing for quite some period of time, since February last year. Throughout that time line, as Senator Feeney would well recall, the government has had a policy of flip-flopping on what it is going to do on climate change, a policy that back in February last year was still committed to having an emissions trading scheme under Mr Rudd. Then we saw Mr Rudd convinced, by Ms Gillard, that he did not want an emissions trading scheme. Then we saw Ms Gillard roll Mr Rudd and promise there would never, ever be a carbon tax under a government she led. Then we saw Ms Gillard sit down with Senator Brown and Senator Milne and suddenly say, 'There will be a carbon tax and I am happy to call it a tax', until last week when she said: 'I'm no longer happy to call it a tax. It is not a tax.' This week I think she is back to calling it a tax, but maybe Senator Feeney can clarify for us as to whether the carbon tax is a tax or not a tax. Perhaps he can answer that for us.