Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister recall making the following statement six months before an earlier election:

In a desperate attempt to find an election life raft, the Prime Minister ... is beginning an unprecedented propaganda blitz using taxpayers’ money.

Does the Prime Minister recall saying:

This soiled government is to spend—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Leader of the Opposition will start his question again.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the Prime Minister recall making the following statement six months before an earlier election:

In a desperate attempt to find an election life raft, the Prime Minister ... is beginning an unprecedented propaganda blitz using taxpayers’ money.

Does the Prime Minister recall saying:

This soiled government is to spend a massive $14 million of taxpayers’ money over the next two months as part of its pre-election panic.

Does the Prime Minister recall saying at that time:

In any other business, the shareholders would revolt and throw out the management which wasted their money.

Does the Prime Minister recall stating:

This propaganda blitz—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. That question is in breach of standing order 100.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am listening closely to the Leader of the Opposition. He is yet to complete his question, but I remind him that his question should be directed to the Prime Minister in relation to his prime ministerial responsibilities.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the Prime Minister recall—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Specifically, Mr Speaker, it is in breach of standing order 100(d):

Questions must not contain:

(i) statements of facts or names of persons, unless they can be authenticated and are strictly necessary to make the question intelligible;

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Mackellar will resume her seat. I have indicated to the member for Mackellar—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members are holding up their own question time. The Leader of the Opposition has the call. I am listening closely to his question.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the Prime Minister recall stating:

This propaganda blitz will make the electorate feel even more angry.

Does the Prime Minister recall stating:

Families, welfare organisations, small businesses, the elderly and the youth of Australia can all see far better ways to spend $50 million than self-congratulatory mirage-making.

Does the Prime Minister stand by these statements, or do they simply no longer apply?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will check what I said, but I will tell you what I do remember. I do remember an advertisement that appeared in the Australian on, would you believe, Monday, 26 September 1985. I have a long memory about these things. It appeared under the heading: ‘To end an unfair and antiquated tax system, we had to take some tough decisions’. This was a newspaper advertisement selling the virtues of the soon to be doomed option C, where the Keating government proposed the introduction of a 12½ per cent consumption tax. I also remember that the people who sank tax reform in 1985 were the leaders of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. It was the objection of the ACTU—the member for Hotham remembers this, and the member for Batman has the decency to grin because he knows what I am saying.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was you, Simon!

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I also say that when you read this, it reduces the information campaign that we have launched in relation to the IR changes to a bland statement of the obvious and of reality. I remember this ad very well. It was perfectly okay for the Keating government to spruik the virtues of taxation reform with an expensive advertising campaign almost 22 years ago. The other thing that I remember—

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tanner interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The member for Melbourne has been warned. He continues to interject. He will remove himself under standing order 94(a).

The member for Melbourne then left the chamber.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 1985, can I just remind the House, it was the leaders of the trade union movement that sank tax reform. If my memory serves me correctly, the strongest support that the then Treasurer got from any significant political figure—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Prime Minister was asked whether he agrees with his own statements. Maybe he can answer it.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat. That is not a point of order. The Prime Minister has been asked a lengthy question. The Prime Minister is in order.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If my memory serves me correctly, I think the then Deputy Leader of the Opposition and opposition spokesman on Treasury matters, the member for Bennelong, gave the then Treasurer more support for the cause of taxation reform than he received from his own Prime Minister or from the Australian Council of Trade Unions. On that note, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.