John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I am very interested in this expression ‘blame game’. They love it opposite. When the Labor Party talk about the blame game ending, what they mean is that you have to stop blaming the states, all of which happen to be Labor, and continue to blame the Commonwealth, which happens to be a coalition government. I do not want to play the blame game.

What I do want to do in this country is to play the responsibility game. The responsibility game is that we have certain responsibilities and the states have certain responsibilities. We do not expect the states to shoulder our responsibilities, and, in the 10 or 11 years I have been Prime Minister of this country, at no stage have we asked the states: ‘Will you do this instead of us doing it?’ It has always been one-way traffic, normally on the basis that the states want us to pay some money to them to do what they are already paid to do.

Let me say that there are responsibilities, and early childhood services, particularly in relation to preschool, have been one of the fundamentals of that policy arrangement between the Commonwealth and the states. So, in the name of the responsibility game, I invite the former Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the member for Jagajaga, to have a talk to some of her state colleagues.

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