Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Hansard source

Two days ago in this chamber, during the matter of public importance debate, I said that in the 12 months ahead we are going to be engaged in a battle for ideas for this country’s long-term future. I also said that values and ideas were important because they shape everything we do. They shape our vision; they shape our policies; they shape the practical things we propose to be done on the ground that affect the lives of working families. All this will culminate in an election at the end of next year which will be the most important election in a generation.

In this battle for ideas, for values and over vision, the battlelines are already clear. Their vision is for an Australia which has about it the Liberals’ three big priorities: me, myself and I. That is the cornerstone of what their philosophy is all about—all to be delivered by a form of market fundamentalism that this country has never seen before. That is their vision.

Our alternative vision is for an Australia in which we have a strong economy based on market principles but also a fair go for all Australian families, not just some Australian families. In a nutshell, that is the difference—that is the alternative vision for the future and that is what this battle will be about.

That is why I have said that in the 12 months to come this country will indeed face a fork in the road—because there is a choice to be faced; there is an alternative to be embraced. Either you can go their way or you can go our way—let’s not pretend about it. You can go for their vision or you can go for our vision. Their vision and the market fundamentalism for which it stands has been so overtaken by extremism in recent years that this fork in the road is becoming very sharp and stark indeed. Ever since this Prime Minister got control of the Senate, this Prime Minister’s policies have become extreme, more extreme and more extreme again. We have seen that particularly in workplace relations, but we see it across the spectrum of other public policy as well.

That is their vision—one increasingly driven by the politics of the extreme. Ours is an alternative vision to restore the balance and to reclaim the centre ground, because Australian families want a balance between a strong economy and fairness for Australian working families. That is our alternative vision.

But make no mistake: when we talk about this alternative which we will face when we go to the next election, it will be made starker and starker by the events which unfold in the weeks and months ahead. Over that period I will be outlining just how these differences between us will be reflected in a different and new policy agenda for the nation, because this is what at the end of the day the Australian people will be looking for: a different vision, different policies and different things which will make their lives more liveable on the ground.

But this debate is also about a new style of leadership, because what we have pursued this week in this parliament is a debate about this Prime Minister’s style of leadership. Leadership is important. It is the vehicle through which long-term change can be brought about for the nation. Alternatively, it is the vehicle through which long-term change can in fact be thwarted in substitution for short-term political expediency. The sort of political leadership and the sort of leadership style we have had from the Prime Minister so far is one increasingly characterised by short-term political survival. That, at the end of the day, is what this Prime Minister has become a past master of.

This Prime Minister is a clever politician. His talents, skills and abilities are so focused on the arts and crafts of immediate political survival that he has lost sight of the nation’s long-term needs, the nation’s long-term prosperity, the nation’s long-term sustainable security and the long-term fairness which is available to all Australian families. At the end of the day, you have limited time and energy in this business of politics, and 95 per cent of this Prime Minister’s energy and time is spent on the art and craft of: ‘How do I get through to nine o’clock tomorrow morning?’ That is what this Prime Minister is such a clever politician at doing. But I have a message for him: the Australian people are starting to see through this. They are becoming very tired indeed of the politics of the short term—the politics of short-term expediency and opportunism.

That brings us to the matter of public importance before us today: the style of leadership that either accepts responsibility or instead always blames somebody else. You either accept responsibility or you take that course of action in which you play the blame game. We have seen today in question after question how this Prime Minister always takes that course of action which causes him least political pain—namely, to play the blame game. If your overriding strategy in politics is political survival at all costs, then the way in which you bring that about is to play the blame game, because at the end of the day that is this Prime Minister’s ultimate objective. Do you remember the Peter Sellers movie Being There?

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