TONY ABBOTT: I’d like to thank Paul and Daniel Beraldo and their families and staff for making Margie and me and Senator Scott Ryan, the Shadow Parliamentary for Small Business, so welcome here in Heidelberg today.
This is one of the tens of thousands of small businesses right around Australia which is going to be hurt by the carbon tax. The Beraldo’s power bills are about $20,000 a year. That will go up $2,000 a year and that’s just for starters. So, it means that whatever you do in your daily life you will be hit by Labor’s toxic tax. When you turn on the power, you’ll pay. When you get in your car, you’ll pay. When you get a cup of coffee, you’ll pay. When you open your refrigerator, you’ll pay. The only people who will save Australia from this toxic tax are the Coalition. It doesn’t matter who wins on Monday, there will still be a carbon tax. It will be a carbon tax based on a lie under Julia Gillard or a carbon fiddle based on a lie under Kevin Rudd.
Now, I think that every member of parliament over this weekend has been assailed by ordinary Australians telling him or her just how embarrassed and humiliated they are by this shambles taking place in Canberra. I think Australians are yearning for better government and the only way they’ll get better government is by electing the Coalition as quickly as possible. It doesn’t matter what happens on Monday, we’ll still have a carbon tax, we’ll still have border protection chaos and worst of all, the faceless men will still be in charge and so I say to every Australian who is dismayed by this spectacle in Canberra – we are a great country. Do not fear. We can be better than this. We are a great country but we are being let down by a bad government and so my constant reassurance to people is that under the Coalition strong and stable government is possible.
We do have plans for a stronger economy, for a stronger society and at the heart of those plans are getting government spending down and getting productivity up because if we get government spending down, you can take the pressure off borrowing, you can take the pressure off interest rates, you can take the pressure off tax and that means a much better deal for the forgotten families of Australia.
So, it can be so much better than this. It will be so much better than this under the Coalition. What we need is not another leadership change orchestrated by the faceless men, not another Labor leader propped up by the faceless men. What we need is an election. That’s what Australia needs right now. Only an election can bring the strong and stable government that Australia needs and finally I say to the independent members of parliament: you gave us this mess, you fix it. You are responsible for this government. You ring this curtain down on this shambles by moving no confidence in this government this week.
I’m going to ask Scott to say a few words.
SENATOR SCOTT RYAN: Thanks, Tony.
This is a fantastic family business success story but life for Beraldo Coffee is only going to get more difficult with a carbon tax. Their power and their gas bills are going to go up. Their cost of production is going to go up and anyone that imports coffee that competes against them doesn’t pay the carbon tax. The carbon tax is just making new investments like you’ve just seen and new jobs more difficult and that doesn’t make any sense for Australia.
So, it doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow. The carbon tax will still be in place making life more difficult for small businesses like this.
QUESTION: Mr Abbott, who would rather run against at the next election – Julia Gillard or Kevin Rudd?
TONY ABBOTT: Well, it’s not about me and frankly it shouldn’t be all about Kevin or Julia, either. It should be about strong and stable government. Neither Kevin Rudd nor Julia Gillard can give Australia strong and stable government because it’s absolutely crystal clear from the hatreds that have been on public display over the last few days that whoever wins tomorrow, the poison doesn’t go away. The backstabbing doesn’t stop. The focus on politics ahead of government won’t end.
QUESTION: Do you think realistically that tomorrow’s result will bring us any closer to an early election?
TONY ABBOTT: Well, I think it’s absolutely clear that the Australian people are sick to death of this kind of circus, only it’s so much worse than a circus. A circus is just a spectacle. This is a spectacle which is damaging our country every day. Kevin Rudd’s got one thing right with his 1.00am speech in Washington last week. First, the faceless men are running the Labor Party and second, the dysfunction at the heart of this government is damaging our country.
QUESTION: You’ve been out and about, do you think the Australian public is finding it distasteful the treatment of the office of Prime Minister?
TONY ABBOTT: I think the Australian public are bewildered and appalled by what senior members of this government are saying about each other. If Julia Gillard really thinks that Kevin Rudd is a dysfunctional egomaniac who was Captain Chaos as Prime Minister, why did she make him Foreign Minister of this country?
If Kevin Rudd really believes that Julia Gillard has utterly broken faith with the Australian people and that the carbon tax is a bad tax based on a lie, why did he agree to serve in her government, particularly once she announced the broken promise, the betrayal on the carbon tax just over 12 months ago? What we’ve seen over the last few days is Julia Gillard confirming everything the Coalition has ever said about Kevin Rudd and Kevin Rudd confirming everything the Coalition has ever said about Julia Gillard.
QUESTION: Are you and your troops in Queensland prepared for the possibility of a by-election in Griffith and how likely do you think that is?
TONY ABBOTT: Well, I think if there were to be any by-elections right now, whoever the Prime Minister is ought to do the right thing and call a general election but we are ready to fight any election, whether it be a by-election or a general election.
QUESTION: When it comes to the issue of trust, you’ve raised the issue of the carbon tax and Julia Gillard when
then-Prime Minister Rudd was ousted said the government had merely ‘lost its way’ but on Friday or Thursday last week she outlined exactly why. Do you think the Australian public can trust someone who has kept that secret for eighteen months?
TONY ABBOTT: I think that’s a very fair point. She told us back in June of 2010 that ‘a good government had lost its way’ when in fact a hopeless government was completely paralysed. How do we know? Because she told us. Now, if she wasn’t telling us the truth before the last election, how can we believe anything she says before this election? This is the Prime Minister’s problem. Whatever she says is dictated by the politics of the moment. Nothing she says can be relied upon to be what she really thinks and believes.
QUESTION: Will the Opposition move a no confidence motion whoever wins on Monday?
TONY ABBOTT: As I’ve said a few times lately, we have no confidence in this government and we have no confidence in this Prime Minister. Increasingly, the Australian public has no confidence in this government or this Prime Minister. The issue is not one for us. It’s for the independents who put her there.
QUESTION: Have you had contact with the independents, Mr Abbott, over the last few days?
TONY ABBOTT: Look, I’m just not going to go into who has had what contact with whom. I’ve always believed that private conversations should remain private conversations and I don’t blab about what is said privately. But I repeat, if the independents have any respect for good government in this country, they will ring down the curtain on this shambles. They got us into this mess. It’s their responsibility to get us out of it. Thank you.