Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Let me say of the member for Griffith what the member for Lalor says of the Leader of the Opposition—‘He’s trying.’ He is trying, but he is not succeeding. This tactic just is not working and it is not working because of the commonsense of the Australian people. The Australian people understand that the last thing this government would have been doing is, on the one hand, contemplating military action against Iraq and, on the other hand, funding the Iraqi regime. They understand because they have commonsense—which is lacking to members opposite—that there is something utterly implausible in the proposition that the opposition are putting forward.

The Australian people also understand that a distinguished judge is looking into this matter—a judge with no axe to grind, a judge with access to all the information that there is to be had—and they are quite prepared to wait for the verdict of Commissioner Cole rather than to believe the bluster that we get day in, day out from members opposite. Finally, the general public understand that deep down all of this is a smokescreen. Day in, day out, since the beginning of this year, members opposite have come into this House and talked about propriety and competence in government, yet they cannot show propriety and competence in opposition. That is their problem. If you are going to criticise the government for alleged lack of propriety and alleged incompetence, you too have to show in your own much more minor responsibilities a level of propriety and competence.

What we have seen today, in a way which I do not think has been highlighted before, is the Leader of the Opposition losing what has long been considered his best asset. He was visibly losing it in every sense at the ministerial table today. His best asset is his reputation with the Australian public for being a decent bloke. Today in question time and afterwards I heard the Leader of the Opposition calling members opposite—and this is a random selection of the abusive terminology he used—‘twit,’ ‘drop kick,’ ‘goose’ and ‘pompous ass.’ We are seeing from the Leader of the Opposition a level of viciousness to equal that of former Prime Minister Mr Keating, with the same foul temper but without the wit to express it that the former Prime Minister possessed.

In this matter of public importance we see the opposition’s obsession with AWB. The reason they are obsessed with AWB is that, as long as they have some spurious criticism of the government, it stops them criticising each other. Mr Deputy Speaker, it is not working. Even the attacks that they are attempting to mount on the government are feeding the leadership tensions inside the opposition. The member for Griffith, the gentleman opposite, claims that his forensic attacks on the government are burnishing his leadership credentials. There is not a journalist or member of parliament in this place who does not know that he is running around saying in his own way, ‘Look at me,’ as indeed is the member for Lalor, and is saying that his attacks on the government in some way demonstrate support for his embattled leader, but at the same time the member for Griffith is telling every journalist who will listen—off the record, of course—that the Leader of the Opposition has just three months to prove himself and, if he cannot lift his game within the next three months, the national Right, particularly the New South Wales Right, will get rid of him. That is what the member for Griffith is saying. I thought there was a marvellous metaphor—

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