Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. I refer the Treasurer to last night’s interview where the ABC’s Tony Jones asked the finance minister whether it was ‘odd’ to plead the case of John Grant at a meeting where Ford Credit was seeking financial support from the Commonwealth. The minister replied: ‘I don’t think necessarily it was, Tony.’ Treasurer, at what point does it become odd to hand over the mobile phone number of the Prime Minister’s benefactor and friend in a $500 million facility negotiation?

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

At a time like this, Australians expect us to be working our butts off to support jobs and to support families and not be wasting our time with juvenile misrepresentations of propositions like they have been doing all week. All week they have been doing that. The shadow Treasurer is a world champion at it, but he is very sloppy, our Joe, because he misrepresents what is said all of the time. I think it is the case that Australians are fed up with the behaviour of the opposition in this House and up in the Senate. They are fed up with it. I can see today from the doorstops that so are some of the backbench over there. This is what the member for Bowman had to say on the doors today. He said: ‘It’s been a bit disappointing that the entire week has been consumed by an affair that isn’t making a great deal of difference around the kitchen table.’ I will tell you who is focused on the kitchen table: everybody on this side of the House. That is what we were doing back in February: supporting car dealers right around the country, trying to address the situation that had been brought about by the global recession. We were concerned about problems in the auto supply chain. That is what we were concerned about and genuine about.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order going to relevance. I really hope he will answer just one question.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer will relate his material to the question.

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

There is more than one, because we also had the member for Canning on the doors:

They—

constituents—

are more interested in what’s happening to them on a daily basis—what’s happening to, you know, their jobs, what’s happening to their mortgages. They’re more interested in that than this what I consider somewhat of a sideshow.’

What have his leader and the shadow Treasurer been doing all week? It is a sideshow! We are in the middle of a global recession. This economy is performing the best—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order, again going to relevance.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer will relate his material to the question.

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

This economy is performing the best of any advanced economy in the OECD, but there are big challenges ahead. The biggest roadblock to recovery in this country is the focus of the opposition on fear campaigns on debt and smear campaigns against me and the Prime Minister.