Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a complete fantasy, a complete fabrication—an absolute, complete and utter fabrication being peddled by the member who asked the question. There is no such thing as the kinds of degrees that the member who asked the question is referring to—no such thing. Members opposite should stop deceiving and scaring the people of Australia. It is part of this whole contemptible business that we see sponsored by the Leader of the Opposition.

Let us understand just how trustworthy this opposition is. Let us understand.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know they do not like it, but let me quote from Paul Kelly's authoritative book—

Mr Butler interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Port Adelaide has been warned!

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The return to how he was as opposition leader is not being directly relevant to the question.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat, and we will have no more abuses of the standing orders. The Prime Minister has the call.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The whole tenor of question time that the Leader of the Opposition has orchestrated is about trust. I am happy to deal on the question of trust, because it was said just a few months ago, in Paul Kelly's authoritative book, Triumph and Demise:

The distrust between Rudd and Shorten was intense and injuring. The Gillard camp was contemptuous of Shorten, considering him weak and duplicitous. Neither side trusted him and neither side revised its view.

Let's not take Paul Kelly as the only source here. People who know this person well understand that he simply cannot be trusted. I am quoting the former Prime Minister now, Julia Gillard. She routinely referred to the likes of Albanese, Swan, Mark Arbib and Billy Shorten as the dark side of the ALP—numbers men who believed in nothing but themselves. If two Labor Prime Ministers could not trust this opposition leader, if his own colleagues could not trust him, if his own leaders could not trust him, the Australian people will never trust him.