Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I am accusing Mr Eideh of being anti-Semitic and unfit for office. He has received comfort and support from the Labor Party. Nobody has the courage in the Labor Party to dissociate themselves from him. He is receiving support from the Labor Party in this House.

There are other examples of the Leader of the Opposition putting his narrow interest ahead of the national interest. I refer especially to the issue of fuel. Through 2001 and 2002 the Labor Party ran a campaign against ethanol. You had the member for Fraser and the member for Hotham in their leadership positions attacking Manildra as one of the companies involved in the emerging ethanol industry. They proclaimed that ethanol was unsafe for motor vehicles, they scared motorists away from the use of ethanol and, of course, they have the political cheek to attack the government on petrol pricing when as a group and as individuals they have done more than anybody else to destroy, harm and retard the growth of ethanol take-up amongst motorists.

Now the Leader of the Opposition has done a U-turn. He has reversed the Labor Party’s outright opposition to biofuels such as ethanol because it is more politically expedient for the Labor Party to now endorse ethanol. But the damage has been done. Talk to anybody in the biofuels industry and they will tell you we are several years behind where we should be on this issue of uptake of ethanol and biofuel because of the Labor Party’s actions. There was no national interest then; there was just grubby, political, Labor interest at that time.

But the backflip by the Leader of the Opposition continues. There is no concept of national interest for him. He told the House on 15 February that he would ratify the Kyoto protocol and that he would incorporate into the Kyoto regime a carbon trading arrangement—that is, he would put a tax on carbon emissions. He has told the House this week that he opposes carbon trading. This is a Leader of the Opposition who will say and do anything at any given moment to win votes or attack the government. He is not guided by the national interest. He lacks conviction and consistency and, as a result, the Labor Party lacks credibility. This is a Labor Party without policy. It lurches from opportunity to opportunity and, before much longer, in the absence of any credible policy framework, the Australian people will pass their judgement. (Time expired)

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