Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister took no action whatsoever on the question of emissions trading when he had the opportunity to act and the national interest demanded that he act. Instead, what he did was to pander to certain sectional interests in the community and decide instead to sit on his hands and do nothing—to do precisely zero. Prime Minister, that is not leadership. That is not leadership at all. That is just waiting around, kicking the sand and waiting till the next opinion poll comes in. And do you know something? Everyone in the country knows it. And if you, 3½ months before an election, think that it is a clever thing to do—and obviously the Prime Minister believes it is clever—to sink your hand deep into the pockets of Australian taxpayers and pull out a huge bucket of money to fund some clever ads on television, to convince the Australian people that suddenly you take this proposition seriously, the Australian people are not about to be fooled. They want a Prime Minister in this country who will exercise national leadership on a—

See this speech in context