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

I thank Senator Macdonald—a distinguished, long-serving senator from the great state of Queensland—very much for his questions, unlike Senator Cameron, who spent 15 minutes asking a few questions as part of the Labor-Green filibuster only to bolt out of the chamber before I had a chance to answer. At least Senator Macdonald is asking genuine and legitimate questions and—unlike Senator Cameron—is genuinely interested in the answers.

Senator Macdonald suggested that Labor had promised, in the lead-up to the last election, that they would abolish the carbon tax. They actually went further. They promised to abolish not just the carbon tax. I have a flyer here authorised by George Wright, the national secretary of the Labor Party. This is what it says. 'Kevin Rudd and Labor removed the carbon tax.' They suggested to the Australian people that it had already happened. In fact, on the front page it has something like a supermarket receipt, which shows the price of gala apples at $5.12 and the price of eggs at $4.02. And then it says 'carbon tax'. And do know what it says next to carbon tax? It says 'abolished'.