Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

Eighteen May was a wake-up call to the Canberra bubble dwellers and the self-appointed elites, for on that day millions of Australians spoke quietly yet decisively through their ballot papers, rejecting big taxes, big government, the climate change emergency mantra and political correctness. Instead, they embraced lower taxes, smaller government, balanced environmental approaches and the virtues and values which have held us in good stead—in short: commonsense policies. The Prime Minister has since referred to these voters as 'the quiet Australians'. Before him, Sir Robert Menzies referred to them as 'the forgotten people'. They've been dubbed as 'Howard's battlers' and 'Tony's tradies', and now we have 'Prime Minister Morrison's quiet Australians'.

The fact they voted to not only renew but also increase the government's mandate took many by surprise. Our fellow Australians rightly rejected the politics of envy, jealousy, division and class warfare which were oozing from Labor's policy platform—a platform that would have even embarrassed Gough Whitlam. The Australian people rejected the alternative Prime Minister, who threatened to run the country like a trade union. Instead, the quiet Australians voted for sound, sensible, stable policy positions, the first of which has already been delivered: namely, tax relief for all Australians to help with the genuine real-life issue of the cost of living. The quiet Australians rejected the extreme climate change mantra and the Labor-Green job-destroying, household-budget destroying, economy destroying and environmentally damaging Renewable Energy Target. Despite this election being variously dubbed in anticipation of a left-wing victory as the 'climate change election' and the 'climate emergency election' by Labor, the Greens, GetUp! and fellow travellers in elements of the media, the quiet Australians opted for the sensible, balanced approach of the Liberal-National coalition, based, as it was, on wise environmental and economic stewardship.

Australians are environmentally and economically astute. They listen to the arguments and ultimately ask the question: if Australia adopts the harsh Labor-Green prescription to reduce CO2 emissions, what will be the actual environmental gain for the economic pain? When our fellow Australians realised that the gain-to-pain ratio was zero environmental gain to massive economic pain, they sensibly adopted the coalition policy. When it becomes known that there are 400-plus coal-fired power stations being planned and built around the world, it becomes obvious that not even considering building an extra one in Australia to guarantee our own energy needs won't destroy the Great Barrier Reef, let alone the world.

As an agnostic on this issue myself, I note the middle-of-the-road approach taken by Australians was, again, level-headed. Yet anyone questioning the extreme Green approach was immediately belittled and besmirched as deniers. Thankfully, the unseemly bullying and hectoring did not prevail. In that context, I can't help but reflect on the drawling vilification by the aforementioned self-appointed elites against those who established the Monash Forum. It may be recalled that the Monash Forum was established to ensure coal, as an energy source, was not foolishly demonised to the detriment of the wellbeing of our people. The forum and its members were belittled and besmirched in the absence of alternative robust arguments and evidence by a chorus of loud detractors who claimed coal mining would be a decisive issue at the ballot box. The detractors were right. Coal would play an important decisive role in the 2019 election campaign—a very important role. It just wasn't as they had predicted. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Support for the Adani coal mine was one of the decisive factors in the coalition's win. Its significance reverberated all the way to my home state of Tasmania, where the use of resources is a determinate for swinging voters, and swing they did. Labor's disingenuous attempt to walk both sides of the street was seen for what it was: fork-tongued politics trying to placate the extreme Greens while selling out hardworking Australians. Australians saw through that deception. They are not fools.