Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw; I am happy to say he has misled the House. There is no doubt about that. And he does not have the courage to come into this place and defend himself. Do you know what the irony is? Not since a Q&A program just after my appointment as shadow Treasurer has he had the courage to debate me. That was on that program. Ever since, they have been rolling out the minister for finance, and now they roll out the kid to defend the Treasurer. The Treasurer is not prepared to defend himself. He does not have the courage to defend himself. He cannot even answer the questions in this place. He refuses to give short, pithy answers that are true and factual. Why? Because the truth is damning of the behaviour of the Treasurer.

It is a disgrace. He is meant to be the person who is leading us out of the enormous financial pressure that everyday Australians are feeling. If he does not have the capacity or the courage to defend his own reputation how can Australians have faith in him to get us out of the economic difficulties that he is making worse for everyday Australians? The Treasurer is a disgrace. He comes into this place with great bravado and says that John Grant from John Grant Motors was treated exactly the same as everyone else. There was no difference, and yet, day after day, releasing emails—not him releasing emails, his own senators releasing Treasury emails, originally—in a Senate hearing. At that Senate hearing it was his senators, not his own Treasury department, that he got to do the grubby work. What a disgrace the Treasurer is. What a weak and insipid individual who does not have the courage to defend his reputation, who does not have the courage to tell the truth in this place, who is avoiding every bit of scrutiny. The 7.30 Report said they invited him on, he did not return their calls, he did not want to come on. Lateline said they wanted to interview him. No Wayne Swan, no Treasurer, no-one with the courage to go up on national TV and explain exactly what the relationship was and is with John Grant from John Grant Motors. No, not this Wayne Swan, not this Treasurer of Australia.

This man is not prepared to defend himself, nor to explain the details. He releases a few emails in the Senate hearing. Those emails point to the fact that the Treasurer received updates directly to his home in relation to John Grant, as I said yesterday in this place.

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