Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I relish the opportunity to reply to the bombast and hot air from the shadow Treasurer, because that hot air is no substitute for policy and it is certainly no substitute for character. What we have seen in this House and in this country is a Prime Minister who has the character and the guts, and a government that has the determination, to do the right thing by the people of Australia and, most particularly, the right thing by the people of Queensland. In that endeavour, given all of the hurt and all of the damage, what we have been faced with from those opposite is a negative political campaign, where they have put their political interests ahead of the national interest. That is what this debate boils down to.

To be lectured by the shadow Treasurer about process is truly galling. Yesterday we had the spectacle of a press conference at which the Leader of the Opposition was there with the shadow Treasurer to announce another round of cuts, supposedly to help fund the recovery—and where was the shadow finance minister? The shadow finance minister was banished from that press conference. It reminded us of the farce of the three stooges which occurred with the budget last year, where they were playing pass-the-parcel. Tony said, ‘I’ll do it.’ He did not do it; he passed it to Joe. Joe said, ‘I can’t do it.’ He passed it on to Andrew. Fair dinkum! There is no credibility. This has to be the weakest opposition frontbench when it comes to economics that we have seen in the history of the parliament, and it was on display yesterday when they were announcing cuts which are the responsibility of a finance minister and Mr Robb was not allowed into the press conference.

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