Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister agree with his minister for finance’s assessment last night of OzCar when he said:

If you look at the total picture you will see there are lots of representations going on with respect to car dealers and financiers, lots of connections being made.

Prime Minister, how many of these connections included a personal phone call from the Treasurer, updates to the Treasurer’s home fax, a car dealer’s mobile phone details being handed over to the CEO of a finance company seeking a $500 million Commonwealth guarantee, a Treasury official referring to the Prime Minister’s friendship with a car dealer when seeking finance on that dealer’s behalf, and self-assessment of financial viability by the dealer? Isn’t it true that if you look at the total picture, of the 240 car dealers, only one had the right connections and got the special treatment?

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

I stand by everything that I have said earlier in this place and I have full confidence in the Treasurer. That is the first point. The second thing I would say to those opposite is that the Leader of the Opposition, as this week has unfolded, has fundamentally holed his integrity. He has fundamentally undermined his authority. We have seen it day in, day out through this debate in this chamber. When the nation is expecting us to be engaged in a debate about the economy, about climate change and about jobs, instead, after 36 hours of the House sitting this week, those opposite have not asked a single question on the economy, not a single question on families, not a single question on education, not a single question on health, not a single question, least of all, on climate change. There has not been a single question on any matter other than what we have seen, which is the rolling politics of fear and smear.

Can I simply say to those opposite that throughout the course of this week what we have had is a government getting on with the business of cushioning Australia from the worst impacts of the global economic recession in contrast with a Liberal Party wasting the nation’s time rather than getting on with the business of government. What we in the government have is a positive economic strategy to cushion Australia from the recession. Those opposite have a negative strategy with the objective of talking the economy down based on the politics of fear and smear and based, in the end, on the falsehood of a forged document. Above all, what we have demonstrated this week is that this Leader of the Opposition is no longer sustainable in his current position.

We saw the member for North Sydney walk away from him only the other night. We saw the member for North Sydney, in response to the question ‘Whose idea was this?’ say, ‘Ah, his.’ He said it did not have anything to do with him. As I said yesterday to the House, when you are in a scrap the last person you want to have behind you is the member for North Sydney. The member for North Sydney demonstrated such robust qualities of loyalty and solidarity to his leader when placed under pressure in an interview only yesterday. Instead, he ran a million miles away. But he is not the only one. Various writers in today’s papers have reflected the observations of others. In other words, when asked the common question on the part of all those opposite, ‘Whose strategy was this?’ the general answer on the part of those opposite was, ‘It was this fellow’s strategy.’ In fact, it was, ‘Don’t look at me, just look at him.’

Where we have got to in this debate, which has lasted the entire week when the entire nation would have had us focus instead on jobs, on small business, on getting ahead with the economy and on making sure that we make a difference in the midst of the worst economic recession in three-quarters of a century, is a Leader of the Opposition slowly sinking beneath the waves in the eyes of his colleagues. What we have now, through his own efforts this week and his own efforts alone, is a Leader of the Opposition no longer fit for office.