House of Representatives - Suspension Motion - Carbon tax
12th October, 2011
Mr TRUSS (Wide Bay--Leader of The Nationals) (14:56): I second the motion. It is essential that this parliament suspend standing orders to debate this censure motion today so that we can begin the repairs to the fabric of our democracy that has been so damaged by the vote in the parliament this morning.It is a shameful episode in Australia's democracy that the government of the day has ignored the will of the people, ignored its own promises to the Australian people and imposed on the people of this country a burden that will make their lives much more difficult.
Members of this place represent families, businesses, manufacturers, miners, farmers and other workers, but today 70 members of the Labor Party, with a few colleagues on the crossbenches, voted to make the lives of their constituents just that little bit more difficult, that little bit harder, by putting up the price of their food, the price of their transport, the price of their education and the price of their health--and some of them will pay the price with their jobs.
And this is a tax the government said it would not introduce. The government is simply bereft of legitimacy. It was cobbled together out of expediency and self-interest. It does not have a mandate. It certainly does not have a soul, it certainly has no honesty and it has subjected the whole of Australia to the will of a very small minority.
The gloating of Senator Bob Brown and the member for Lyne a little earlier, the self-congratulation of the members opposite and the members for New England and Denison, and the celebrations of the Prime Minister and her cohorts only serve to inflame the sense of betrayal that the people of Australia have today.
Australians across the country feel ashamed of their government; they are embarrassed that in a democracy like ours their will, their views, should be of such little significance that they were ignored by this government, a government that has simply forgotten its obligations to the Australian people.
The carbon tax will go down in history as a hatchet job on our democracy, and we need to suspend standing orders today so that we can demonstrate to the Australian people that the parliament do care about these things. We do respect the role that we play as members of parliament--our obligation to the Australian people to be honest with them, to tell them the truth, and then to deliver what we promised at election time.
Lies have paved the path to the Lodge for this Prime Minister: 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.'
Well, I think she still leads the government. I know that she is still living in the Lodge, even if it has got a bit leaky! Occasionally, she gets to sit in the Prime Minister's chair, although she has run away from it now.
The reality is that we know that Bob Brown runs the government but she is still the Prime Minister. She leads the government. She has broken her promise. The reality is that this Prime Minister has betrayed the trust of the Australian people.
She is not fit to fill the office. She deserves to be censured and she needs to be censured today so that the Australian people know that there are some people of decency and goodwill in this parliament who really respect the fundamental traits of our democracy: government of the people by the people for the people.
The public have made their views on what they think about this carbon tax absolutely clear. This is the only consensus this Prime Minister has achieved. Remember her promise to develop a consensus before we had a carbon tax? She has the consensus: the people of Australia say no to the carbon tax.
If the government want to govern for the people in the interests of the people they will say no and will not impose this tax upon them. What we have here are the Australian people being shut out. They are being ignored. They are being treated with disdain by this Australian government. Many of them are going to have to meet the higher costs of living, all of them associated with this tax. Some of them will lose their jobs.
International competitors will be delighted. They are looking forward to the feast from picking up our markets around the world or extending their exports of cheap products to this country. The reality is this government has let us down. If tyranny is an abuse of power by a few over the will of the people then sadly tyranny has come to Australia this day. We expect that kind of thing in Libya. We expect a lot better here.
[ENDS]
