Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Brandis says that he is an historian of politics. Let me go through some history. Problems in either the Labor Party or the coalition are not new. Leadership challenges are not new. I can go back to 1980 or further than that. There was Fraser versus Snedden in 1975. In 1982, there was Fraser versus Peacock. In 1983, there was Peacock versus Howard. In 1985, there was Howard versus Carlton. In 1987, there was Howard versus Peacock. In 1989, there was Peacock versus Howard. Then we had a doozey in 1990: Hewson versus Reith versus Webster. Then in 1993 it was Hewson versus Howard. In 1994, it was Downer versus Hewson. If we move on to 2007, it was Nelson versus Turnbull. In 2008, it was Turnbull versus Nelson. In 2009, it was Abbott versus Turnbull.

If you want to have some analysis of challenges in politics, it is a bit hypocritical for the coalition to come in here and argue that the Labor Party is the only party that has issues with leadership. Leadership is always an issue in the coalition. It always has been and it always will be.

And it is not just fights over leadership. Let me tell you about the big fight within the coalition. It was a fight between the guy who thought he was a great Treasurer, Peter Costello, and the Prime Minister, John Howard. We had a period in which Peter Costello did not have the guts or the backbone to stand up to John Howard and did not have the guts or backbone to stand up for this nation. He allowed John Howard to throw good money after bad on tax cuts, which meant that we could not invest in infrastructure in this country, in children's education or in a national disability insurance scheme. We could do none of those things because there was absolute turmoil during the whole period of the Howard government between John Howard and Peter Costello. And who won that battle? It was John Howard—much to the regret of those who wanted to try to build this country.

But don't take my word for it. Go back to one of our most eminent political commentators: Peter Hartcher, in the Sydney Morning Herald on 25 April 2009, said:

At the heart of the Howard government's management of the economy was a raging, unending argument.

And the reason was simple: according to Peter Costello, the Prime Minister believed the public would be grateful to the government for new spending and would vote accordingly. So it was one big bribe from the coalition—no economic position, no building for the future, no spending on public schools; public schools were diminished under the Howard government, health was diminished under the Howard government. So I will not accept for one minute any lectures about instability or any lectures about economic credibility from those economic incompetents across the aisle. I will not accept that for one minute.

Even Senator Sinodinos: what did he say? This is Howard's former chief of staff, now a senator here. He said there was:

"a lucky dip feel", as officials and ministers scrambled to formalise tax cut options and decide which ones would get the go-ahead.

Well, we do not do that. What we do is invest in health, invest in education, invest in infrastructure, invest in the NBN. We make sure the issues we take up are building this economy and building this nation, not like the economic incompetents across the chamber.