David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

David Epstein is right: the party over there has lost its way. I quote him again. He said:

It’s puzzling when a party claiming to be progressive wants to compound out-dated interventionism with a market distorting loan guarantee specific to Qantas. This is a step down the Argentine road.

We all know Mr Epstein's history. How is it that he can see what this is about—a commercial entity in the marketplace—yet the opposition in this place wants to start doing what it has always done when confronting every policy, and that is to write cheques. We are not in that business, and the taxpayer at long last can see some semblance of responsibility on the government benches.