Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I very much welcome the Leader of the Opposition’s question. To the Leader of the Opposition, I say this: if he wants to have a debate about political honesty, bring it on. This is the man that on the 7.30 Report basically said, when he was struggling under questioning from Kerry O’Brien, ‘If I say it, don’t believe it because it’s only anywhere near the gospel truth if I write it down.’ They were the words out of the mouth of the Leader of the Opposition. This is the man that went to an election giving a rock solid, ironclad guarantee and then broke his word immediately afterwards. This is a man who is on the public record as saying from time to time he gilds the lily. This is a man who created some of the most spectacular election footage ever shown on Australian TV when interviewed on Lateline and asked about his visits to Cardinal Pell. We all remember what happened. It looked a little bit like he looked with Mark Riley the other week—deadset looked down the camera at Tony Jones and told an untruth and then caught in that untruth looked filthy and aggressive the way we know the Leader of the Opposition can when he is at his most hollow.

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