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

I find it passing strange that those opposite would provide the House with a lecture on these sorts of standards, given where they have come from on these matters. This is the party of children overboard, the party which misled the Australian people on the eve of the 2001 election. This is the party which presided over the wheat for weapons scandal, the biggest corruption scandal in Australian history. This is the party which presided over the implosion of HIH. The then minister responsible for its regulation is now the shadow Treasurer and the member who is now the Leader of the Opposition was working at one stage for Goldman Sachs, a company which provided some corporate advice in relation to this matter. When it comes to ministerial standards and parliamentary standards, those opposite should reflect long and hard on the standards which they bring to bear in this debate today.

Those opposite have nothing positive to say about the Australian economy, nothing positive to say about how we are going to take this country forward at a time of extraordinary global economic duress and nothing positive to say about what the country should do given the challenges that we face. Instead they are embarked upon a campaign of undiluted negativity. They should hang their collective heads in shame.

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