Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

We will put the states on top of that. On top of that we have the Labor Party states responsible for $252 billion of more debt. They do not care about how you repay it; they have not got a clue about how you repay it. They are always the same—they just get into a monstrous amount of debt and then when the place is on fire they run away.

This is the same group of people who brought us the war on obesity. What happened to that—was it a win or a draw? What happened to the fat people—where are they? It is a very bellicose arrangement that exists on the other side, because after they finished fighting the fat people they went to war against the homeless. Why don't you just leave them alone? Keep your hands in your pocket—stop picking fights.

I have found lately that we are increasing the amount that we are going to be sending overseas on scams. We have gone from buying $2.7 billion in carbon credits in 2020 and sending that overseas to buying $2.8 billion that we will be sending overseas. What is another $100 million between mates? I was looking at prospective letters and in the future we might get a letter like this from the office of Mr Soolaimon Bellowof the African Development Bank: 'Please transfer $2.8 billion into my account and I, the Auditor-General of the African Development Bank, will during the course of events deliver you some carbon credits.' Of course, where we are going is just so logical! You know where this ends up? Down the track we will end up sending $56 million a year overseas. People must be falling over themselves laughing at us and saying: 'Something has happened in Australia. There is something in the water in Australia. The Greens have obviously managed, in the dark of the night, to legalise marijuana. They're all just hooking up. They've got some crazy ideas. They're crazy people over in Australia. They're cooling the planet and they are going to be sending all of us $56 million a year in 2050.' Do not worry about our pensioners, do not worry about their teeth, do not worry about our kids—no, we have got a job to do: we must find every scam artist on the globe and send them a cheque for carbon credits.

Then we are giving the Greens their own bank account—a $10 billion bank account. In it they are going to come up with ideas because they are ideas people—straight to the pool room. We are going to have ideas coming from them—a new set of global warming jousting sticks. The ideas are going to be like those which we have seen in America where, the other day, they wrote off a loan in excess of $535 million. It was just one of those green ideas. These things seem to come unstuck. The problem is that they do not make much money. They tell us about green jobs. Where are these green jobs? Where are these people? I am looking for one. I ask Australia: if someone out there has a green job please ring up and tell me where you are, because we are apparently all going to have green jobs. We do not have to worry in the future about our coalminers or meatworkers. We do not have to worry about the manufacturing industry, which they used to represent, because they are going on this perverse path of green jobs—of wind chime manufacturers and duck pond makers. That is how we will survive in the future when we have got to pay back their stinking debt: we will survive with just green jobs and beautiful thoughts.

This nation really has got to wake up to itself. It just cannot go on like this. The New South Wales Treasury figures show the carbon tax will lead to 31,000 lost jobs in New South Wales, but over 26,000 of these will be in regional Australia. But we have not got an inquiry going on into regional Australia, because Bob has got to go to Durban. He has to go surfing and he has to tell the people in Durban what a wonderful person he is. So let us not worry about regional Australia and the 26,000 people in regional Australia who are going to lose their jobs, including 18,500 in the Hunter. If you are listening to me, you people in the Hunter, I say that Joel Fitzgibbon is going to vote for 18,500 people to lose their jobs. Maybe he should just lose his job, or maybe he should do the noble thing and cross the floor and vote against it. Cross the floor, Joel; cross the floor, Sharon Grierson; cross the floor, Kirsten Livermore—