Senator BRANDIS (3:04 PM) —The real question in this debate is why the Prime Minister said one thing on 16 August in order to get elected and did the opposite after her government had been commissioned. That is what this debate is all about—how the Prime Minister grossly deceived the Australian people. At the time of the 2010 election there was a lot of uncertainty in the air. The polls were tight, the Labor Party had had a terrible campaign, as they themselves later acknowledged, but there was one thing for sure, there was one thing about which the Australian people could be absolutely certain—and that was, come what may, whether we had a Labor government or a coalition government, there would not be a carbon tax. That was one issue that had been sorted because the coalition throughout the election campaign had made a commitment that there would be no carbon tax if a coalition government were elected. Mr Abbott was emphatic on that from the beginning to the end of the election campaign. On our side of politics the Australian public had nothing to fear from a carbon tax. But they also had this assurance from the Prime Minister. On 16 August she stood on the Kangaroo Point Cliffs in Brisbane after she gave a Labor Party policy speech and looked down the barrel of a television camera and said:

Let me say that again, because this was a very deliberate, considered statement. She said:

There was no wiggle room there. There were no ifs, buts or maybes. There were no weasel words. There was no ambiguity. She said:

She said that five days before the election. Promises, undertakings and assurances do not come more ironclad than that. Any elector who was uncertain—and a lot of people made up their minds in that last week—went to the polls knowing that if the Prime Minister of Australia was a person of her word and was telling the truth there would be no carbon tax under any government she led.

Fast-forward to last Thursday when the Prime Minister, flanked by Senator Bob Brown, Senator Christine Milne, Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor, stood in the Prime Minister’s courtyard and said, ‘There will be a carbon tax.’ This is not all that hard. If the Prime Minister on 16 August, five days before the election, says, ‘There will be no carbon tax under any government I lead’ and after she grafts her way back into power she announces there will be a carbon tax, have the people been misled? Of course they have been misled, and everyone who heard and relied upon the Prime Minister’s integrity when she made that statement on 16 August and now knows that she has retreated on it, she has abandoned it entirely, knows what this Prime Minister’s word of honour is worth. They know what this Prime Minister’s word of honour is worth. This government is without integrity. It is without credibility. It cannot be trusted to stick to its most solemn assurances.

But it was not merely the Prime Minister. This is what the Deputy Prime Minister said on the day before, on 15 August:

And a few days earlier on the same issue this is what Mr Swan said:

that is, speaking about a carbon tax—

As I said before, it is not very difficult. It is not rocket science. When you have the leader and the deputy leader of the government the week before an election in which a carbon tax is one of the great issues emphatically, specifically, unambiguously rule out a carbon tax and when they find themselves back in government after the election and the events that happened in the weeks subsequently they introduce a carbon tax, did they mislead the Australian people? I do not think there is any person who has followed this debate who is in any doubt about that. In fact, looking at the long faces on the government back benches, there is not one Labor senator who is in any doubt about that.

Senator Abetz —They were not consulted.

Senator BRANDIS —Of course they were not consulted, Senator Abetz. It did not go to caucus, and Senator Conroy has been going around telling people it did not even go to cabinet. Let Senator Wong deny that if she speaks in the debate. But wasn’t it significant that, in the 15 minutes during which he struggled to try and make some sort of defence of the government’s untenable position, not one word did Senator Evans, the government leader in the Senate, say in defence of the Prime Minister herself—not one word, because you cannot defend the indefensible. You cannot say the week before the election there will not be a carbon tax and a few months out from the election there will be a carbon tax and expect people to believe you anymore. That is the problem the government have. They will not be believed anymore.

In fact, Ms Gillard, in abandoning that solemn promise that was given to the Australian people on 16 August, was in a long and sorry line of Labor Party prime ministers. Who can forget after the 1993 election Mr Paul Keating and the l-a-w law tax cuts? Do you remember that, Mr Acting Deputy President—when Mr Keating went to that election and said: ‘There’s no way we will repeal these tax cuts because they are written into the legislation. This is not a promise; it’s l-a-w law’? Having won the 1993 election in part on the faith of that assurance, what does he do? He comes into the parliament in 1994 and changes the l-a-w law.

Senator Ronaldson —He did a Gillard.

Senator BRANDIS —He did a Gillard. Mr Rudd, the Prime Minister whom Julia Gillard butchered—on this very issue, by the way, of the way to deal with carbon emissions—in one of his most emphatic promises in the 2007 election campaign said that under no circumstances would any government he led interfere with the private health insurance rebate. What happened once Mr Rudd had been elected on the faith of that assurance, among others? He introduced legislation to means test the private health insurance rebate. We could go on and on and on, but each of those events has one thing in common: a promise by a Labor Prime Minister, a solemn promise by a Labor leader to the Australian people in an election campaign, which was flagrantly and shamelessly violated once they got the election behind them. That is what this Australian Labor Party is like and it is in particular what the government of Julia Gillard is like: a government whose word means nothing, whose Prime Minister’s integrity cannot be relied upon, who are prepared to do anything, to say anything, to break any commitment, to abandon any assurance, in order to get through the next election campaign. But the people are a wake-up to them. There is a reason why the talkback radios went into meltdown on Thursday and Friday after the Prime Minister announced that she was breaking this solemn promise.

I could go on and on about the long list of Labor broken promises in the dying days of Mr Rudd’s administration. My office actually produced this very attractive document, the long list of Kevin Rudd’s broken promises. Such was the demand for it that we had to produce a second edition, and at the time Mr Rudd was butchered by Ms Gillard we were into a third edition. Thank you, Mr Brennan. But the record of the Gillard government for breaking its promises in a much shorter period of time than the Rudd government is even worse. If I had the time I would read into the Hansard the 53 broken promises that we have tabulated since the 21 August election. But I will not dwell on that for a moment, because there is a more important issue to address, and that is the cost to Australians of this broken promise.

If you are a member of the Australian Labor Party, you do not live in the world of ordinary Australians and you do not live with people in the suburbs who have the cost pressures of normal families and normal suburban life; you live in this cocooned environment, this surreal environment, which is the modern Labor Party.

Senator Wong interjecting—

Senator BRANDIS —You of all people, Senator Wong, would fail to understand the concerns of ordinary Australians living in the suburbs. You would not be concerned about the fact that, according to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the effect upon a household of a $26 per tonne carbon price will be an increase in its electricity bill alone of at least $300 each year. People who are struggling to raise kids, people who are struggling to pay their mortgage, people who are struggling with higher interest rates as a result of this Labor government and people who are struggling to make ends meet just cannot afford to pay at least another $300 on their electricity bill in order to indulge the whimsy and fancy of this Labor government to give effect to a policy which is based upon a lie—the lie that there would be no carbon tax under a re-elected Labor government.

If you are a citizen of New South Wales it is worse. According to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, which is the statutory agency responsible for electricity pricing in New South Wales, for an average New South Wales household the effect of a carbon tax of $26 per tonne would be an increase in its electricity bills of at least $500 a year. Maybe those in the Labor Party, maybe those sons and daughters of the Comcar aristocracy, can afford $500 a year.

Senator Wong —Mr QC, man of the people! Give me a break!

Senator BRANDIS —Maybe $500 a year means nothing to you, Senator Wong, but if you lived in the suburbs of normal Australians, were trying to raise a family and were trying to survive on Australian average weekly earnings $500 would mean a lot. The indifference to the concerns of average Australians, the indifference to the cost of living pressures upon them, is one of the most shameful aspects of the betrayal that is this broken promise.

It is not just electricity prices. My colleague and friend Senator Joyce asked the Leader of the Government in the Senate whether the government would give an assurance that petrol would be exempt from the carbon tax and no answer was forthcoming.

Senator Abetz —Yet again.

Senator BRANDIS —Yet again. We waited through two minutes of verbiage, through two minutes of trying to bat the question away, but came there an assurance? No, there did not. ‘Everything is in,’ said Senator Evans, ‘everything is included.’ So if you are trying to deal with the cost of petrol, if you are a member of an Australian family who worries about the cost of petrol on top of the rise in interest rates, on top of the rise in grocery prices and on top of the rise in your electricity prices, all of which will be driven up by the carbon tax, be assured that this government makes no commitment to you whatsoever that the cost of filling your family car will not increase significantly. In fact, at a carbon price of $26 per tonne it will rise by 6.5c a litre at a minimum.

We could look at this from a moral point of view and express outrage that a government could so flagrantly and shamelessly lie to the public just to win an election. We could look at it from an economic point of view. But I suspect that most Australians, while being disgusted at the lies that were told to them by the Labor Party in order to win the 2010 election, will be more immediately concerned about the effect on their hip pocket. They will be more immediately concerned that the price of electricity, the price of petrol, the price of groceries and the general price of living will be turbocharged as a result of this broken promise. Who do we have to thank for this? Of course the government of the day must take responsibility for its decision, and when it is a decision based on a lie the government must take responsibility for that. But we know who the joint authors, if not the real authors, of this decision were— not this lame, hopeless government but their political partners the Greens.

When Senator Brown appeared in the Prime Minister’s courtyard last week abreast the Prime Minister, with Senator Milne, Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor in tow, he looked every inch a prime minister. Let the record show that Senator Brown nodded appreciably at my remark. The fact is the person in control of that press conference was not the Prime Minister but Senator Bob Brown, just as the person in control of this agenda was not the Prime Minister but Senator Bob Brown. His colleague Senator Christine Milne—

Senator Abetz —Very helpful.

Senator BRANDIS —very helpfully and candidly told us so. Senator Milne, no doubt bursting with pride at the achievement of her leader, said:

In a doorstop interview the next day, this is what Senator Christine Milne, the Deputy Leader of the Greens, said:

Senator Wong, who I see is here representing the government: be careful what you wish for; be careful in your choice of allies. They might just turn on you and claim credit, leaving you with the public odium of your broken promise while they claim the credit for the policy which they have foisted upon you.

Senator Abetz —They are the gift that keeps on giving.

Senator BRANDIS —They are, as Senator Abetz rightly says, the gift that keeps on giving.

I am sure this carbon tax will gladden the hearts of Senator Brown’s constituency. Most of them are very well-to-do people who probably will not feel greatly a $300- or a $500-a-year increase in their electricity prices. It will be your constituency, Senator Wong, the people who the Labor Party has always pretended to defend, the lower income earners, who will be paying the price of Bob Brown’s conceit. You will rue the day when you sold out your working class supporters for the well-to-do supporters of the Green party. You will rue the day when you sold the Labor Party’s soul for a mess of pottage in order to get the Greens into an alliance with you because they will turn on you, Senator Wong, and they have already begun to. They have fitted you up for this while they preen themselves, puff their chests out and say to the inner city dwellers earning six-figure incomes, ‘Look what we have made this government do.’

The fact is we are all losers from this. Our democratic system is a loser from this because we know that we have a government in place in Australia now that stole an election. Can you imagine what the result of the election would have been if instead of saying, ‘There will be no carbon price under the government I lead,’ the Prime Minister had been honest and said what was really on her mind, ‘There will be a carbon tax under the government I lead’? That would have been the truth but for the fact there would have been no government led by Ms Gillard after 21 August because the people would not have voted for a carbon tax. Our democratic system is the loser by this. The Australian Labor Party is the loser by this because whatever shred of respectability it might have been able to try and cling onto when it comes to accountability and transparency it has now irremediably lost. The biggest losers will be ordinary Australian families, particularly the low-income families, who the Labor Party used to support but has now abandoned, who will not be able to afford the price of the Labor Party’s dishonesty.