CLIMATE Change Minister Greg Combet broke into song yesterday as the Government stepped up its counterattack on the Opposition’s campaign against the carbon tax.
In an uncharacteristically fiery performance in Parliament, Mr Combet ridiculed Tony Abbott’s claims the carbon tax would destroy industrial towns such as Gladstone and Whyalla by singing “everywhere is doomed, man”.
Mr Combet’s take on the Lucky Starr song came at the end of a week in which re-energised government hit back at the Opposition’s predictions that the carbon tax will harm Australia.
He accused the Opposition of hypocrisy because 30 per cent of Coalition MPs hold shares in mining companies while they claim resources businesses will be hit by the carbon tax. “It doesn’t show much faith in the member for Warringah (Mr Abbott’s) investment advice,” Mr Combet said.
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“If there was a TV show, Australia’s Greatest Hypocrites, they would be the winners.”
The attack from the usually restrained Mr Combet was part of a Labor strategy to highlight Mr Abbott’s “aggressive negativity” that has seen him reach record disapproval levels despite the Coalition’s lead in the polls.
Amid raucous scenes in the final Question Time for a fortnight, insults were traded across the Chamber.
At one point, Prime Minister Julia Gillard mocked the age of long-serving Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop and Ms Bishop hit back with a gibe about the size of the PM’s nose.
The Government leapt on the release of data showing record planned capital spending as a sign of its economic management. Total private capital expenditure is forecast to rise to a record $173 billion in 2012-13, the data showed.
“This reflects the huge pipeline of resources investment flowing into our nation, half a trillion dollars,” Ms Gillard told Parliament.
The head of Treasury Martin Parkinson told a Senate estimates hearing he sympathised with miners’ complaints, because “the golden bit is over” for Australian resources companies.
But Dr Parkinson said the mining boom was continuing, even if it had passed a peak. The Australian economy and banks were in good shape to withstand any further financial turmoil from Europe, he said.