Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Not accepted. I then move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition detailing to the House his smear allegation against the Prime Minister, the Liberal Party and the Government.

I have moved to suspend the standing and sessional orders so that the Leader of the Opposition can come to this dispatch box now and, with his own mouth, make the allegations that he is putting through the member for Jagajaga and through the member for Grayndler, which he does not have the decency to put himself.

You cannot come into this place and sit there and pretend you have nothing to do with what is going on. You cannot come into this place and turn your back and studiously write nothing on a piece of paper and pretend that those who are getting up around you have nothing to do with you. I have an unfortunate fact for the Leader of the Opposition: these are your team. These are your people; they work on your instructions. As anybody who has been around this place long enough knows, nobody can come to the dispatch box on the opposition side and ask a question unless the Leader of the Opposition authorises them to do so. It is absolutely inconceivable that the member for Jagajaga could have walked to this dispatch box, could have put a slur on the Prime Minister, could have put a slur on the government, could have put a slur on the Liberal Party, except that she was authorised to do so by Kevin Rudd, the Leader of the Opposition.

As for this saintly persona, that he is some kind of pale imitation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer—that just makes the fraud worse, frankly. To hide behind this saintly image, when you are prepared to have other people go out and do your dirty work for you, actually makes the fraud worse.

So what are the allegations that are now being put by Kevin Rudd, the Leader of the Opposition, against the Prime Minister? The first insinuation and allegation that has been put is that somehow the Prime Minister, the government or the Liberal Party put out a story in relation to his health. Aside from wishing him a long life, which I am sure we all do, nobody on this side of the parliament has any interest at all in his medical conditions. I have no more interest in his medical conditions, or any of his frontbenchers’ medical conditions, than I hope they have interest in my medical conditions.

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