Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Brendan, if I were you, mate, when it comes to watching, I would be watching my back! I would be watching my back very closely over the next few months. Up there, over there and even over here—you have been a bad boy, Joe!

The government makes no excuse for commissioning expert advice on future policy settings when we need it. My recollection is that it said in the set of annual reports tabled by the previous government at the end of last year that there were something in the order of 400 to 500-plus reports, inquiries and commissions undertaken by those opposite in the last financial year alone. That is an extraordinary number. So I would suggest to those opposite it is not abnormal for the executive in government to seek professional advice. We are in exactly the same category and we are doing that through commissions of inquiry and the like. For example, we make no excuse for the fact that in the 2020 Summit there was a national call for us, after 12 years of inaction, to work towards—

See this speech in context