Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thought for a moment the Greens under their new leadership might be starting to show some economic sense and rationality. Indeed, today's headlines in the newspaper seem to suggest that they are not just going to take the 'we are against anything the Liberal Party wants to do' approach, which has been the approach of the Greens political party, particularly under their former leadership. And I thought, 'Gee, there's a glimmer of hope!' I am not sure that that was real good for the Liberal Party, Mr Acting Deputy President Back, because if the Greens start looking like they are a sensible, mature political party then perhaps they will take a couple of votes off us! I think they know they will take a lot more off the Labor Party, as they have been doing. But that glimmer of hope and rationality that I thought might be around has just been dissipated by the previous speaker.

I do not know which university he went to, but they must have been teaching him some funny economics there. I might say, Senator Whish-Wilson, that I did not go to a university; I could not afford that. I started work as an articled clerk and did my university qualifications externally, at night-time after working all day. So I did not get the privilege of popping into an economics class run by what sounds to have been a very left-wing group of tutors and lecturers. I am just not sure where it comes from. But I always thought it was the Greens political party's approach that we did not tax people enough in Australia—that there had been too many cuts. Again, it is a bit difficult to find out where the Greens are, economically.

As for the Labor Party, I am delighted that they are, at last, going to support a measure which they did actually introduce, Senator Whish-Wilson. I am not here to defend the Labor Party, I can tell you that! But you wrongly accused them. The Labor Party did do something about this when they were in government. They actually made a commitment to the Australian people before the election that they would do exactly what this bill does now. So, far from berating the Labor Party, you should at least be giving them credit for actually carrying out the promise they made before the last election. We know that Labor Party promises before elections are not particularly reliable. We all remember, prior to the 2010 election, the commitment: 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' We all remember that commitment on the eve of the election. But then, having watched the last couple of episodes of TheKilling Season, one can never quite understand the personalities, the bitternesses and the hatreds in the Labor Party which seem to be their modus operandi. That is what seems to direct policy decisions in the Labor Party.