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

Mr Speaker, it was a self-description, but in deference to you I withdraw it. As the Australian revealed today, the Leader of the Opposition now accepts that the state government’s plan was in fact a betrayal of the people of the Mersey region; and the federal government intervention that was a travesty last week, it seems, is a necessity this week. Once again, on a major policy issue, we see the Leader of the Opposition practising followership, not leadership. This Leader of the Opposition only knows what to do because he sees this Prime Minister doing it first. He follows the ACTU on industrial relations and he follows the Prime Minister on just about everything else. The people of Australia are entitled to ask this question: what would the Leader of the Opposition do if he did not have a great Prime Minister to follow and echo? I tell you what he would be. He would be a kind of Manchurian candidate for the ACTU. But what the people of Australia are coming rapidly to conclude is that we need a leader, not a cipher, in the Lodge, and that is what we have got with this great Prime Minister, John Howard.

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