Govt blocks parliamentary scrutiny of carbon tax

A Coalition move to bring back the House of Representatives on Monday, allowing for Parliamentary scrutiny of the carbon tax announcement, was blocked today by the Gillard Government, the Greens and Independent Members Robert Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie.

“The Government is running scared of close scrutiny on the carbon tax broken promise,” said Christopher Pyne, the Manager of Opposition Business.

“Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, vowed to release the details of the tax as soon as they were available, but couldn’t risk the announcement being derailed by having to answer the tough questions that have been ignored for months,” Mr Pyne said.

“I moved a motion to bring back the House on Monday allowing the Government, Opposition and the crossbench members an opportunity to comment on the new tax,” he said.

“The motion also would have required that the Government face the Opposition in Question Time.

“It is especially disappointing the crossbenchers are ignoring the concerns within their own communities and are allowing the Government to avoid scrutiny on a policy that will have an enormous impact on this country,” Mr Pyne said.

July 7, 2011

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