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Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Page: 3482

Senator XENOPHON (South Australia) (09:55): The plebiscite proposed by the opposition has been described as 'a stunt'. Well, after a decade in the South Australian parliament, I know a thing or two about stunts and this is not one. I do not believe Julia Gillard was lying to the Australian people when she said there would be no carbon tax under the Gillard government. To lie you have to be saying something that you did not believe and I do not think the Prime Minister believed at the time there would be a carbon tax under her government. But circumstances changed and the Prime Minister had to change her position. Did she lie? No. Did what she say about there not being a carbon tax have a material impact on the way Australian people voted and the outcome of the election? Probably and many would say almost certainly. That is why I think a plebiscite on this issue is justified. With such a fundamental change in policy direction, I believe the right thing to do is to take this back to the people. Politicians are constantly going on about how disengaged the people are when it comes to politics. Well here is a chance to get them re-engaged. I have worked with the coalition to depoliticise the language of the question and I have insisted that I want the vote to be on the legislation. I would urge the government to release their plan as soon as possible so the Australian people can make an informed choice.

My mind on this was made up in a sense 13 years ago when I had to speak in the South Australian parliament about the then Olsen Liberal government's plans to privatise the state's electricity assets after saying at the 1997 state election that they would not do so. They had a mandate not to sell the assets in the same way that this government has a mandate not to go ahead with what is being proposed. I quoted social researcher Hugh Mackay back then and I think it is worth quoting him again. He said:

With trust in the political process being eroded with every bent principle, every broken promise and every policy backflip, the level of cynicism has reached breaking point for many Australians.

I think that is what we are seeing here. In the ordinary course of events our system of parliamentary democracy expects our elected representatives to make decisions conscientiously in the interests of the nation as a whole. If the electorate does not approve of these decisions then you can rectify that in the ordinary course of events at the next election. But this is about a fundamental change in policy where I do not believe you can unscramble the egg once you have put it into place. That is why I believe that it is important that the Australian people have a say. A plebiscite is not technically binding but it would be a foolish government and a foolish opposition that would ignore the will of the people. On this issue especially the Australian people deserve to be heard. I support the motion.