Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I want to say to this House, I want to say to the press gallery, I want to say to the members and the public who are watching this: let us remember this fact that the Leader of the Opposition has engaged in character attack, because when his character is examined let us remember that it was the Leader of the Opposition who began the character attacks. The government is quite entitled, in repudiating those character attacks, to ask this question: how reliable, how honest and how candid has the Leader of the Opposition been when he has been under attack?

When he was asked about his association with Brian Burke, you will recall that he said it was all an accident that he met Brian Burke and that he just happened to be staying with the member for Cowan. That was not the truth, and everybody in Australia knows it. When he was asked the question whether or not his office knew about a proposal to bring forward a remembrance ceremony at Long Tan and he denied it, that was not the truth either. The truth of the matter was that his office knew about it and he went to extraordinary lengths to try to deny it, including some of the most uncouth language that has ever been used against journalists in private—and we all know what it was. We know what he is like when he is speaking in private. He is not the person that he would have you believe he is. The journalists who copped those phone calls know the level of the vitriol and uncouthness and the crudity of the language that he used in trying to deny that obvious truth.

We are entitled to ask how deep he holds his political convictions. For example, one of the things that the Labor Party has repeatedly opposed—and it opposed it when it was introduced in this parliament—is the Job Network. The Labor Party was absolutely opposed to the Job Network: they believed that job placement should be done by a government owned agency, Centrelink. The Leader of the Opposition believed that most certainly, but was his conviction deep? Was his conviction so deep that he would oppose this and not take benefit from it? No, it wasn’t that deep; it wasn’t quite that deep.

He will come into this parliament and will tell you that he is against industrial relations reforms. He will tell you that he is against individual contracts. Does that conviction run deep? Does it run deep—his opposition to individual contracts when it comes to industrial relations? I do not think that runs very deep at all, because he only appears to get outraged about certain employers who use individual contacts, not all employers who use individual contracts. He can get himself worked up about a motel owner at Goulburn but he cannot get himself worked up against all employers who use individual contracts.

He will take out advertisements saying he is an economic conservative. We are entitled to ask: how deep does his conviction run in relation to this? Did it run deep enough to support measures to balance the budget? Did it run deep enough to support the repayment of debt? Did it run deep enough to reform the Australian taxation system? Did it run deep enough to clean up the waterfront? Did it run deep enough to establish a future fund? Does it run deep enough to keep his hands off the Future Fund? It does not run that deep. At the bottom of this it is very hard to find a conviction that the Leader of the Opposition actually believes in and will stand by even when it is not popular.

It is very easy for him to stand up now, take out an advertisement and say in that advertisement: ‘I’m an economic conservative.’ But people are entitled to know where that economic conservative was when the hard decisions had to be taken. That is what they are entitled to know, because he is auditioning for a big job. He is auditioning for the job of Prime Minister of Australia, and we want to know when the heat is on if there is anything to him, if there is any conviction, if there is any ability to stand up and to make a hard decision. I tell you this: if you cannot make a hard decision, you cannot manage the Australian economy and you cannot be trusted with the management of the Australian economy, because people’s lives depend on it, people’s mortgages depend upon it and people’s businesses depend on it. It is much more than a focus group in the advertising agency; it is real hard work. I make this charge: I say that the Leader of the Opposition is not up to the job, he does not have the convictions, he cannot make a hard decision.

As for his censure, this would have to be one of the weakest censures about a ‘secret’ campaign which has been disclosed in this House on at least two occasions—the budget and at the dispatch box, backed up by press releases, backed up by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister does not deserve to be censured here; the person who ought to be censured is this lacklustre Leader of the Opposition.

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