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

Senator Evans wants me to put my heart into it. Senator Evans, you and every other senator on that side of the chamber and every Labor member of the House of Representatives went to the last election backing the Prime Minister and her promise. It is possible that Mr Rudd was not backing the Prime Minister as enthusiastically as everybody else, but the rest of you went to the election backing the Prime Minister, who stared down the lens of the camera and uttered those words: 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' That is the promise she made. She went to the election on it and she managed to cobble together a government in the weeks after the election, having only just limped over the line.

Those opposite all know that if she had not made that promise, if she had not betrayed the Australian people, if she had not told what has turned out to be a mistruth during the election campaign, they probably would never have limped across the line. They would never have got those votes together. But they cobbled together a government. They did a deal with the Greens and the Prime Minister came out and said, 'Lo and behold, circumstances have changed.' The only circumstances that changed were her desire to occupy the Lodge and the threat that she may not be able to do so unless she did a deal with the Australian Greens. So in the one month we heard the Prime Minister on the one hand saying that we would not have a carbon tax, selling that to the Australian people, and then on the other hand signing a deal with the Australian Greens to say we will have a carbon tax.

This amendment seeks to right that wrong. This amendment seeks to give the Australian people a chance, a choice and an opportunity to have a say on this policy. We can go to an election and give the Labor Party the chance stand for their principles and fight for what they are now attempting to legislate. This is an invitation to the government and an opportunity to go to an election and say, 'We believe in this, we are genuine about this and we will stake our position in government on this.' That, after all, is what the Howard government did in regard to the GST package. Former Prime Minister John Howard went to an election in 1998 and gave the Australian people a choice before bringing fundamental reform into this parliament. Your government has done the exact opposite. You went to the election promising one thing and then did the exact opposite afterwards, giving the Australian people absolutely no choice whatsoever.

The lack of consistency between those two examples is seen right through every stage of the debate. I have highlighted that in this place before in relation to the committee examination of this legislation. It is like chalk and cheese. For the GST we had multiple committees undertaking multiple examinations of the legislation over a period of five months. Here we had one hastily convened committee controlled by the government and the Greens that only had a couple of weeks to examine the matter. In this chamber today we see a vastly different situation occurring. When the GST was debated in this chamber the committee stage lasted for 51 hours and 32 minutes. How much time do you think we have for the committee stage this time around? We will be lucky to have 30 hours. We will be lucky to have half the amount of time.

The government proclaims the carbon tax is a bigger reform than the new tax system was. They claim this is even bigger. They certainly acknowledge it has economy-wide implications, and yet they will not provide the same amount of time for its debate in this place. At every opportunity they run away from debate. They run away from the opportunity for the Australian people to have their say. This amendment is their opportunity to have a say, the government's opportunity to put it to the Australian people and to have the courage of their convictions, to let their government rise or fall on this matter.