Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Last week the Leader of the Opposition was happy to have a flick at the Governor of the Reserve Bank; this week he is having a flick at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. At a time of global instability in financial markets, this is not a responsible course of action. I would suggest to the Leader of the Opposition that a responsible course of action at a time like this is to back our institutions rather than to engage in the politically opportunistic course of action of simply having a flick at them on the way through because there might be a cheap headline in it for him. The circumstances surrounding the response to short selling are as described in the Treasurer’s answer to the parliament just before. That is why the government acted in the way it did. I noticed very carefully what the Leader of the Opposition had to say by way of intervention before when the Treasurer was referring to the need for legislation on short selling. His interjection was there was no need for any legislation on short selling while they were in office.

See this speech in context