Sabra Lane reported this story on Monday, February 28, 2011 18:18:00

MARK COLVIN: The battlelines are already being drawn for the next federal election and already the biggest fight looks likely to be over climate change and the price of carbon.



Tony Abbott said today he would scrap the carbon tax if he won the next election.



Julia Gillard claimed that that decision was the most reckless made by a political leader in 15 years.



It made for a rowdy afternoon in Parliament with the Opposition repeatedly trying to make the Prime Minister's honesty the issue and challenging her to call an election immediately to seek a mandate for the tax.



From Canberra, Sabra Lane reports.



SABRA LANE: Andrew Robb has been criticised as an old man in a hurry and today he was out of the blocks ahead of Tony Abbott to announce the Opposition's position on a carbon tax.



ANDREW ROBB: If we get in we will scrap it.



SABRA LANE: And within hours of that Mr Abbott visited a bus company in Queanbeyan just outside Canberra to announce the Coalition's formal position.



TONY ABBOTT: We're not talking about changing it. We're talking about scrapping it.



SABRA LANE: It was a warm-up to Question Time.



TONY ABBOTT: Why should small businesses like Dean's Buses trust the Prime Minister on anything when she couldn't keep a promise not to introduce a carbon tax?



(Calls of "hear, hear")



JULIA GILLARD: Let's have this debate. Let's have it loud and clear in this Parliament and beyond.



SABRA LANE: Loud it was, with Ms Gillard turning the Opposition Leader's oft-repeated words into an attack on his position.



JULIA GILLARD: Mr Speaker today before Question Time the Leader of the Opposition has confirmed that he now holds the most reckless political position taken by a national leader in the last 15 years.



After we've priced carbon and given businesses certainty and households assistance he has committed to ripping all of that up.



Mr Speaker we will be holding him to account for that every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year and Australians will see exactly how wrong and reckless he is.



(Calls of "hear, hear")



SABRA LANE: The Opposition sought time and again to make the Prime Minister's honesty the issue and her broken promise that she wouldn't introduce a carbon tax.



The deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop read a quote from Kevin Rudd on the day he was dumped as prime minister.



JULIE BISHOP: Equally strong was advice from Wayne and Julia that the emissions trading scheme had to be abandoned.



(Interruptions from the House)



Why did she advise the ex-prime minister to abandon the emissions trading scheme in 2010 but is now proposing…



HARRY JENKINS: Order. The honourable member's time has expired.



JULIE BISHOP: …to introduce a carbon tax?



HARRY JENKINS: Order.



JULIA GILLARD: I thank the deputy leader of the Opposition for her question. It enables me to say of course that the Liberal Party is the party of the past, mired in it as they are, whilst we talk about the future.



And it's not surprising they gave this question…



HARRY JENKINS: Order.



JULIA GILLARD: …to the deputy leader of the Opposition because whenever I have a casual word with one of her backbench colleagues they say she's history.



JULIE BISHOP: If Kevin Rudd couldn't trust her why should the Australian people?



(Interruptions and calls of "hear, hear")



JULIA GILLARD: Very much Mr Speaker and I suggest Australians rush to their kitchens and check that their spoons aren't bent after that performance.



(Laughter)



SABRA LANE: Earlier this month it was claimed the Opposition was copying the policies of One Nation in devising its policies.



And the Climate Change Minister Greg Combet claims Mr Abbott's responses to the Government's climate change policies are also reproductions.



GREG COMBET: It's the One Nation Party climate change policy.



(Interruptions from the House)



Yes Mr Speaker, what a disgrace! What a disgrace!



It doesn't take much more Googling to find out where the concept of the people's revolt comes from either. It's the Tea Party, the far right of US politics.



TONY ABBOTT: Does the Prime Minister recall saying and I quote, "The Labor Party is the party of truth telling."



(Loud laughter)



"When we go out into the electorate and make promises you know what we would do in government. We would keep them. When we say them we mean them."



So I ask the Prime Minister, given the carbon tax lie she told before the election how can Australians ever again trust this Prime Minister?



(Calls of "hear, hear!")



JULIA GILLARD: If he wants to have a debate about political honesty well bring it on.



(Shouting from the House).



Bring it on.



SABRA LANE: It led to a censure motion which failed to gain majority support.



TONY ABBOTT: She is a fraud. That's what she is!



(Cries of "hear, hear!")



She even had the hide to somehow liken this campaign for a carbon tax to the former prime minister's campaign for tax reform. Well I tell you what, that prime minister did not lie to the Australian people before an election. He had the guts to go to the people promising to bring in a new tax.



HARRY JENKINS: Order.



TONY ABBOTT: That's the guts that constitutes real leadership. That's the guts that this Prime Minister doesn't have and because she lacks that guts and that honesty she should be condemned by this Parliament.



(Cries of "hear, hear!")



JOE HOCKEY: If you do have any courage, if you do have any guts, if you have any core principles go to the Australian people now and get a mandate for your bad tax!



(Cries of "hear, hear!")



HARRY JENKINS: Order!



JULIA GILLARD: Mr Speaker I campaigned against the GST. But once it was implemented I understood how devastating it would be...



(over interruptions from the House)



...for businesses…



HARRY JENKINS: Order.



(over interruptions from the House)



JULIA GILLARD: …to try and take it away.



HARRY JENKINS: Order.



JULIA GILLARD: What the Leader of the Opposition has said today…



HARRY JENKINS: Order!



JULIA GILLARD: ...is if this Parliament successfully…



HARRY JENKINS: The Member for Dickson.



JULIA GILLARD : …embraces the opportunities of the future…



HARRY JENKINS: Order!



JULIA GILLARD: …and prices carbon then he will go to the next election sweeping that away.



MARK COLVIN: The Prime Minister ending Sabra Lane's report.