Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure this evening to make a contribution and to follow my colleagues Senator Cormann, Senator Bushby and Senator Birmingham to speak on the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2013 Measures No. 1) Bill 2013 and the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2013 Measures No. 2) Bill 2013. In particular, I want to speak tonight as a Western Australian senator with regard to those bills that are linked so closely to the rolling disaster that we know in Western Australia as the minerals resource rent tax.

It has been a week of milestones in this building. In addition to celebrating 25 years in this place, yesterday we observed the third anniversary of the Gillard government—three years since the Prime Minister brutally knifed her predecessor and promptly told the nation not to worry, that she would fix all the problems that had bedevilled poor Mr Rudd. Remember, it was Julia Gillard who was going to stop the boats; she was going to develop a community consensus on climate change; and she was going to fix the mining tax. Well, let's just reflect on where we are three years later. And, as we look on, so too does the member for Griffith as he stalks the halls of this building this evening, still seething, still plotting his revenge against this Labor leader. And, when we reflect, what do we see? We see that the boats have not stopped. In fact, there are more of them than there ever were under the member for Griffith. In all fairness, though, I suppose the Prime Minister has in a sense achieved that broad community consensus that she sought on the issue of climate change. That consensus, some of us on this side might think, was built around her duplicitous dealings with the Australian people before the last election, when she said there would be no—