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

In truthfulness, could the Leader of the Opposition say that there is not a battle royal going on within the frontbench of the Liberal Party as to whether the member for Dickson, the member for North Sydney or the member for Goldstein—anyone other than the member for Curtin, it seems—is going to be the shadow Treasurer of the Liberal Party? What is remarkable is that here they have launched a couple of weeks of attack on the economic credibility of the Australian Labor government and at the same time they cannot resolve who the Treasury spokesman of the Liberal Party is going to be. This actually speaks volumes.

But what is the common thread through all of this, apart from the Leader of the Opposition himself? It is this: there is not a single thread of consistency in any of these positions all the way through, and that goes to a fundamental truth. This government, dealing with difficult circumstances around the world—the global financial crisis—has been acting in the national interest. People may disagree with one policy or another—that is fair enough; it is a democracy and there is a debate. But what we see time after time with the shifting positions of the Leader of the Opposition on interest rates, the global financial crisis and temporary deficits—you name it—is a political leader in this country who has abandoned leadership and is instead engaged in short-term political opportunism. What we have had on one issue after the other is not the national interest being served but the political self-interest of the Leader of the Opposition.

This comes to its absolute apex in the important legislation before this House today—that is, the Fair Work Bill. This Leader of the Opposition, in the past, has gone on the public record not just defending Work Choices but shouting from the rooftops about how important Work Choices is to the future reform of the country. In fact, on 2 November 2005—the day, I am told, of one of his 27 votes in support of Work Choices legislation—he said:

Today is the day that Kevin Andrews introduced the Work Choices legislation into the House of Representatives—the single most important reform to workplace relations in any of our lifetimes.

The problem, I would say to the Leader of the Opposition through you, Madam Deputy Chair, is that in this business of politics, which is a rough and tumble business, you actually have to stick with your principles. The former Leader of the Opposition who sits up the back there, Brendan Nelson—

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