Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

What is interesting is that, as we come to the end of this parliamentary week, no evidence has been produced at all to support these extraordinary, extremist and hyperbolic assertions. Last week the Leader of the Opposition said to the National Press Club:

...I promise you—

the people at the National Press Club are journalists—

and every Australian—

this—

will be the most aggressive Parliamentary interrogation this Government has faced in its ten long years in office.

You can just imagine him saying it, all blown up, explosive and excited: ‘The worst corruption in 25 years’, ‘Responsible for the deaths of Americans’, ‘Suicide bombers’, ‘Research into weapons of mass destruction’, yet after a whole week of these incredible assertions the Leader of the Opposition today was quoted on Brisbane ABC news as saying:

There is no smoking gun here.

Oh dear! The most corrupt, appalling, vile, cruel, wicked people in the history of the universe—but there is unfortunately no smoking gun. The Leader of the Opposition, at the end of the day, is a weak man who is a pathetic parliamentary performer.

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