Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The main impediment, of course, is the Australian Labor Party. I said before that the carbon tax is bad for the economy and bad for jobs while doing nothing for the environment, but clearly the carbon tax is bad for the Australian Labor Party too. It does very strange things to the Labor Party. Generally when we approach an election it creates a bit of a virus. That is when the Labor Party says, 'Us too! Us too! We are against the carbon tax too!' But on the very day when the Labor Party, here in Canberra, votes in this chamber to block our attempts to free the Australian people from the impost of the carbon tax, to bring down the cost of living for families and pensioners—in particular in my home state of Western Australia—by voting to keep the carbon tax, their lead candidate, he who cannot be found anywhere in Western Australia, whereas Senator Pratt cannot be found anywhere here in the chamber, comes out and says on the public record that Labor is scrapping the carbon tax. (Time expired)