Senator POLLEY (Tasmania) (16:28): What a contribution to the Senate that was. When I asked a question today of the senator representing the Prime Minister, it was in response to one of those policy announcements by the Prime Minister that they are now trying to run away from. The comments that I referred to were from the Treasurer of the Tasmanian parliament: Liberal member, Peter Gutwein. He raised his concerns. I quoted him when he said: ... each Tasmanian would need to pay $4,500 per year in additional tax. That is not what I have said. That is what the Treasurer of Tasmania has said. So there is no doubt. We are getting quite used to the fact that this Prime Minister has all these thought bubbles and they just sort of float past. He will see a bubble somewhere, grab it and say, 'That seems like a good idea,' but we know his ideas do not really stand the test of time. He will announce something in the morning and, by the evening, it will be off the drawing board, yet again. We know, from the contributions that have been made through the course of yesterday and today, that there is only one thing this Prime Minister has on his mind, and that is that he will do and say whatever it takes to try to pull the wool over the eyes of the Australian community, yet again. He will say one thing today but do something completely different tomorrow. We know, when he knifed Tony Abbott, that he did what he had to do. He did the deals within his caucus to get him that job. He has run away from the principled position that he kept espousing to the community, year in, year out. So we expect nothing different from him as Prime Minister, but the Australian people see things very differently now. They see that this government cannot be trusted. Whether it is Tony Abbott or Malcolm Turnbull— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Bernardi ): Order! Senator Polley, you should refer to him as Mr Abbott or the member for Warringah. Senator POLLEY: Whether it is Mr Abbott or Mr Turnbull, Australians know that what they say before an election will be very different if they are re-elected. They said before the last election that there would be no cuts to education and no cuts to health. That was untrue. They said there would be no new taxes, and what have we seen? We have seen, time and time again—and it really does not matter whether it was Mr Abbott, when he was Prime Minister, or Mr Turnbull now—that they cannot be trusted. They are running scared and running away. They spent all this money bringing us back to parliament for two days, and what have they done? They guillotined debate on a bill that was introduced yesterday and passed last night. They did not give each and every one of us senators the opportunity to contribute to the debate. That is the very least you should expect when you come into this chamber. When there is proposed legislation before this chamber, you have a right to make a contribution, but they guillotined the debate because all they wanted to do was spend taxpayers' money to recall parliament so that their Prime Minister could call a double dissolution of the parliament. I say: bring that election on, but let us make sure that there is some real honesty in this campaign. This Prime Minister may say that he is nimble and agile, but we know he is not a truthful Prime Minister. If he was, he would have been up-front with the Australian community. When he wanted to extend the GST to fresh food—in fact, extend it to everything—and increase it from 10 per cent to 15 per cent, he was not being honest, but he did get the message, because the Australian people and those on this side of the chamber said, 'We will never support a GST on everything; we will never support an increase to 15 per cent.' If you want to talk about taxation and have a thought bubble every other day, that is fine, but you will be judged on that by the Australian community. They will judge you. I would not get too self-assured if I were sitting on that side of the chamber, because we know the Australian people are smart. They will make their judgement. Of course those on the other side go into this election as frontrunners—they certainly do—but just be prepared. You will have to explain your policies in far more detail than you did at the last election. You will not get away with the hollow promises that you made that there will be no new taxes, no cuts to education and no cuts to health. You ran away from Gonski funding in years 5 and 6. You have betrayed the Australian people, and I think it may well be once too often. (Time expired)