EO&E..............................................................................................................................................................

 

 

It’s terrific to be here at Brindabella Airlines. I want to thank Ian Vanderbeek and his team for making me so welcome. This is one of the thousands and thousands of Australian businesses which is being badly impacted by the carbon tax. Brindabella estimate that the carbon tax will cost them a thousand dollars every single day and the impact of this hit on their business is that services to the public will suffer.

 

Two routes have been axed in significant measure because of the carbon tax. There’s the Albury to Canberra route. There’s the Armidale to Brisbane route. These are important public services that won’t exist in significant measure because of the carbon tax. Now, sure, it wasn’t the only factor in the airline’s decision but it was a major factor and it was the final nail in the coffin.

 

Now, the problem with this carbon tax is that it impacts on every aspect of people’s lives. This is a tax on fuel. It’s a tax on power. It means that if you turn on the lights – you pay. If you turn on the heater – you pay. If you turn on the TV – you pay. If you buy a cup of coffee – you pay. If you go to the airport, get in a taxi – you pay.

 

This is a tax that will touch every aspect of Australian’s lives. It is absolutely toxic and the only way to get rid of this tax is to elect a Coalition government when the people next get the chance to go to an election.

 

I keep reassuring people at what is a difficult time in our national life that it doesn’t have to be as bad as this. There is a better way: the better way is that which the Coalition offers with a stronger economy for a stronger Australia. Lower taxes mean less pressure on people’s cost of living. Lower spending means less borrowing and less pressure on people’s interest rates.

 

It can be better than this. There is nothing wrong with our country that a change of government can’t improve.

 

So, as I said, Brindabella is just one of many, many businesses right around Australia that is under the hammer of the carbon tax. Again, I really appreciate the efforts that Ian Vanderbeek and his team have made to make me so welcome this morning.

Mr Vanderbeek, wouldn’t it make more sense to pass on the carbon tax and then wait to see if any routes are not profitable?

 

 

Well, these routes are already marginal at best and really the carbon tax was the final nail in the coffin for them. We can’t afford to wait for that period of time. We just don’t have the financial resources to wait that long to see if a route will improve.

 

 

The new FIFO arrangement, will that be more lucrative than the previous routes you were doing? Is it going to be a good commercial decision?

 

 

The thing about operating charter work for us is that we’re guaranteed the revenue. We know what our revenue is before we depart as opposed to waiting to see what passenger numbers will be on the day and that’s important for a small company like us.

 

 

You’ve been a donor to the National Party. Was there any suggestion to make sure the carbon tax was somewhere in the press release when you put it out?

 

 

No, absolutely not. We put the press release out under our own words and we’ve had no contact with anybody prior to doing it.

 

 

Mr Abbott, what happened there in the House today? You’ve accepted a tainted vote.

 

 

No, we did not. We absolutely did not. As soon as it became apparent that the Government was pulling this stunt, Christopher Pyne and I absented ourselves from the chamber. So we did not accept the tainted vote of Craig Thomson. We did exactly the same thing with Craig Thomson that the former government did with Mal Colston.

 

 

To negate the vote, though, by the numbers, you’d either have to have two Coalition MPs out or one vote for the Labor side.

 

 

No, not true. We will absent one of our members whenever Craig Thomson chooses to vote for us. I’ve got to say, I don’t think he’s going to vote for us too often. It was obviously a stunt orchestrated between Craig Thomson, Anthony Albanese and the Government.

 

 

When did you realise he was in the chamber and voting for you? You took off in an awful hurry there.

 

 

Because Christopher Pyne and I suddenly realised that he was in the chamber.

 

 

By the numbers though, if you absent one and he votes for the Coalition, there’s still one vote away from Labor. Wouldn’t you have to have two go out next time?

 

 

As I said, if he is in the chamber, voting on our side, one of our people will be absent and we expect the Government to do the same thing. This is a tainted vote. We aren’t going to rely on a tainted vote and I call on Julia Gillard to do exactly the same thing.

 

QUESTION:

 

Why do you think it was part of a Labor stunt? Do you think he was in cavorts with Albanese, do you?

 

TONY ABBOTT:

 

Because journalists had been alerted in advance that this was about to take place.

 

Do you think it was Mr Thomson then? Is he still attached to the Labor Party?

 

 

Look, it’s pretty obvious that the Labor Party has been running protection for Craig Thomson ever since he first got himself into trouble. For months and months and months, the Prime Minister said that she had full confidence in him. She said that she wanted him to be the Member for Dobell for many, many, many years to come. The Labor Party was paying his legal fees. We still don’t know exactly how much money the Labor Party has given to him in order to keep him in the Parliament. The Prime Minister finally said that a line had been crossed but she didn’t explain what that line was. Now she says that he’s not fit to sit with the Labor Party in the caucus but he is fit to sit with the Labor Party in the Parliament.

 

So, this is an example of the fact that the Prime Minister just doesn’t get it when it comes to parliamentary integrity and every day we see more examples of the fact that this Prime Minister doesn’t get it when it comes to integrity. We’ve seen shifty and evasive answers from the Prime Minister this week over the enterprise migration agreements. We’ve seen a Prime Minister spooked by the unions and now a cabinet that’s been rolled by the caucus.

 

 

You definitely made it out for that first vote? I understood only Christopher Pyne made it out. You weren’t there for the first vote?

 

 

I’m not going to go into the precise details of who was what and where, but we absented ourselves from the chamber to ensure that his vote was not counted for us.

 

 

Were you personally in the chamber for that first vote?

 

 

I think I’ve dealt with this one. So, if there are any other subjects I’m happy to take questions on them.

 

You were quite disparaging of Fair Work Australia before the report on Craig Thomson, now you seem to be embracing it more. Do you think that’s at all hypocritical?

 

 

Look, the Fair Work Australia report was a thorough piece of work. We waited far too long for it. Even Fair Work Australia says that the report took far too long, but certainly it was a thorough piece of work when it came out. The interesting thing, though, is that the former registrar of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission wanted all of the Thomson material given to police back in June of 2009 and the real issue is, why didn’t Fair Work Australia provide this material to the police as the former industrial registrar thought should happen?

 

 

Mr Abbott, what do you make of the committee set up to look at the EMAs?

 

 

This is another example of how this government is making it harder and harder and harder for the mining industry. First of all, they hit the mining industry with the mining tax. Then they hit the mining industry with the carbon tax. Now, the enterprise migration agreements that they promised are now being made more cumbersome because the caucus has rolled the cabinet and because the Prime Minister has been spooked by the union movement. We all know that this Prime Minister only survives courtesy of the faceless men. The faceless men gave her a dressing down last Friday. She claimed that she was furious about agreements that she’d always known about, that she had previously supported. This is just another example of a Prime Minister in thrall to the faceless men of the union movement upon whom she depends for her survival.

 

 

David Manne’s in the High Court today, the directions hearing in that case against ASIO. Does that concern you at all what could the outcome be there, the potential outcome?

 

 

Look, I’m sure the High Court has the matter well under control.

 

Thank you.

 

[ends]