Leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott gives an unscripted address to the Convoy Of No Confidence – Parliament House – 22nd August 201.
“The first responsibility of Prime Ministers the first responsibility of politicians is to stay in touch with the people they represent.”
“…the fact that so many of you have come so far show that you care a very great deal about the future of our country. Our democracy will be in safe hands as long as the people of this country continue to care about it and you care about it.”
“Not all of you always agree with me and I don’t always agree with everything that people put to me either. But all of us here today agree that we don’t need a carbon tax and all of us agree that we need an election. We say no to a carbon tax because we say yes to man industry yes to affordable transportation we says yes to affordable energy and affordable power in this country. “
“We will oppose the carbon tax in opposition and we will rescind it in government. But the more of you who come out, the more of you who make your views known to your Labor or independent member of parliament, the more likely we are to stop this bad tax stone dead.”
Full transcript of Mr Abbott’s address.
Ladies and gentlemen, I want to say how pleased I am that the people of Australia want to make this the people’s house, not just the politician’s house, and I want to inform you that as I speak here now, the PM is about to do a press conference in the PM courtyard. She’s talking to the political insiders, and she should be talking to you here. The first responsibility of Prime Ministers the first responsibility of politicians is to stay in touch with the people they represent. And that is my problem, my problem is that this PM is fundamentally out of touch with the Australian people.
Now, I want to say Thank you to all of you for coming from all around this country to this meting to day. I particularly want thank people who come from very long distances. The people who’ve come from Perth, the people who’ve come from Darwin, the people who’ve come from Cairns, and I particularly want to thank the people who’ve come from Port Headland, that is a big trip. And the fact, that so many of you have come so far show that you care a very great deal about the future of our country. Our democracy will be in safe hands as long as the people of this country continue to care about it and you care about it.
Now ladies and gentlemen there are hundreds of you here, there are thousands of you who would like to be here, and there are millions of you who are sick of being ripped off by a bad government. Now I’ve got to say, that there are some pretty hard bitten characters here because I’ve met a few of you last night, and not all of you always agree with me and I don’t always agree with everything that people put to me either. But all of us here today agree that we don’t need a carbon tax and we do need an election [cheers].
Ladies and gentlemen, we say no to a carbon tax, because we say yes to manufacturing industry, we say yes to affordable transportation, we says yes to affordable energy and affordable power in this country and what we don’t need for the truckies of Australia to have to pay another $½ billion a year out of pockets that are empty or emptier because of the charges and charges which are heaped upon them. You do not deserve a $½ billion a year slug on your bottom line because of this carbon tax. So, I want to give you this absolutely categorical assurance on behalf of the coalition I lead, we will oppose the carbon tax in opposition and we will rescind it in government. But the more of you who come out, the more of you who make your views known to your Labor or independent member of parliament, the more likely we are to stop this bad tax stone dead. And the terrible thing at the moment is, we have this tax, the most complex tax change in Australia’s history, a tax that will just go up and up and up, if it gets in and if it stays in. It’s the most complex change in our history and it’s being managed by the most incompetent government in our history. If you can’t trust the government to put pink bats in people’s roof without them catching fire, if you can’t trust the government to build schools halls without rip off, after rip off, if you can’t trust the government to keep the live cattle trade going in the face of a TV program, you can never trust the government with a tax like this. You just can’t trust them.
Now ladies and gentlemen, should there be a change of government [merriment] yes there should, yes there should, and if and when there is a change of government, I cannot promise you that all of your problems will be solved, but I can promise, I can promise, that I will respect the Australian people, I will listen to the Australian people and I will be straight with the Australian people. That’s what we need, we need governments that listen, government with respect and government that are straight and the problem at the moment is that this country of ours, is a great country, it’s a great country with a lousy government and our task is to give a great country and a great people the better government that they deserve.
MichaelC58
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