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

A smart opposition would have had a very obvious tactic before it. A smart opposition would have supported the government’s scheme and then proposed one of its own on top of that. That is what a smart opposition would have done, but not this opposition. This opposition wants to abolish the government’s scheme and instead propose a scheme which is smaller and worse than that which the government has put on the table and which is going through the parliament at this time. The fact that the shadow minister opposite, the member for Gellibrand, felt the need to commence her remarks today by saying that what she announced today was but the first instalment of Labor’s dental plan demonstrates that she knows that she has got it wrong. It demonstrates that she knows that trying to trump a $385 million scheme with a $290 million scheme simply does not work. So she has made a terrible mistake. She has dumped her leader in it, and the fact that she was buzzing around throughout question time today getting a bit of trauma counselling from the member for Jagajaga and others shows that she knows that she has made a serious tactical mistake.

See this speech in context