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Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Page: 5370

Senator JOYCE (Queensland—Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) (15:04): I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked today by Senator Mason in relation to carbon pricing.

I also note that question time has been shut down in the other place. There must be a little bit of pressure over there. It is very interesting. The sort of thing that brings about that pressure, on one of the first times that we can recollect that they have actually shut down question time—and that has not happened for a long, long, long time—is that they probably do not have full confidence in what is going on. They are probably generally doing a fine job over there, and these are words that are going to resonate in our heads: 'a fine job'. That is what the member for Dobell was doing: a fine job. He was going to be there for a long, long, long time. Now it looks like it could be a couple of days. And there is 'full confidence' in the member for Dobell.

One of the things that bring about this lack of confidence is that the Queensland Treasury has presented a range of figures pertaining to the assessment of a carbon tax. And remember that the Queensland Treasury, administered by the Queensland Treasurer and member of the Labor Party, has presented a set of figures that are entirely different to what this Treasury has presented on the carbon tax. They are two completely different sets of figures. How could this be, pray tell? We do not seem to have full confidence in what is going on these days. It has not been a long, long, long time, but it seems to be coming really, really, really unstuck.

We can look at the tabled presentations by the Queensland Treasury. We cannot get the tabled presentations from the federal Treasury. They are hiding them; they do not want us to see them. It is secret squirrel stuff. And that is another thing we could talk about: things they keep secret. When they actually present the figures we find that regional towns in Queensland are going to be smashed by a carbon tax. This broad based consumption tax, delivered to you via every power point in your house, will do absolutely nothing about the temperature of the globe. It is merely a gesture. We see people who should be standing up for manufacturing jobs, sitting opposite me today, who should be standing up for working families, but all they want to stand up for is the Greens. That is who they support now: the Greens, the party that has been destroying the Labor Party. It is tearing the Labor Party asunder. The Labor Party is a slave to the Greens, and they are tearing it apart. It has lost its soul. They are doing it here today and they are doing it in the other place. Why are you doing it to yourself?

This carbon tax is the absolute essence of insanity. It has brought you unstuck. Why did you go back there? Why on earth did you go back to that turf? Everything else you could have walked through, but that is the tipping point; it is the destruction of what is happening. Everything that is happening around here is associated with this insane tax. When we look at the global environment and what is going on—the rise of China, the rise of India, the problems in Europe, the problems in the United States—why on earth would this nation go down the path of a carbon tax? It is just beyond belief. But it is not beyond contempt that you would do that to our country. It is not beyond contempt that you would put at risk the future of this nation by reason of this insane tax and a policy that is guided by the Australian Greens.

We have seen so much that is there for Queensland. The towns of Rockhampton, Gladstone and Mackay will suffer up to three times the effect of the carbon tax. These were the heartlands of the Australian Labor Party. Rockhampton was one of the heartlands of the Australian Labor Party. Why are you doing this to their jobs? Why are you doing this to prices? Why don't you care for these people anymore? Why can't you be fair dinkum and stand up for the real issues? Why do you go on this mad frolic with the Greens? Why have you let them do this to your party? Why do you sit back and watch while this happens? Every figure tells a story. The polling that is happening to you at the moment is for a reason. It is basically a self-inflicted wound, because of your mad taxes, mad associations and warrants for people—'full confidence' and all that other stuff. How did you get yourselves into this position?

If you do not back away from this carbon tax, it will go beyond being an issue for the Labor Party; it will be bad for Queensland and bad for our nation. It is absolutely beyond contempt that you would go to the areas that are actually putting money on the table for our nation. If it were not for regional Australia, the money would not go on the table for us to spend to keep the service industry afloat. It is the money that we get from our raw exports—coal, iron ore, wheat—that keeps this nation going. What a carbon tax does for that, gosh only knows. (Time expired)