Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

All Labor governments, including the Bush administration in the United States! That is the level that we are left with. This guy is the Leader of the National Party—a once great party, now a party that does not even know if they will continue to exist beyond the next year—a party that have reforms and ballots on whether they should continue to exist or not. What an absolute disgrace.

The opposition argue there is no international credit crisis. They argue that there is no international impact of oil. They argue that it has nothing to do with the global situation because they cannot put forward an alternative. They simply are incapable of having one option just as they are incapable of uniting behind a weak and pathetic leader. They have one position on Work Choices, I will give them that—that is, they will bring it back because every one of them voted to confirm that they would bring back Work Choices and AWAs if they were re-elected. They have two positions on the alcopops issue. On 27 April, the Leader of the Opposition said:

The proposed increase in the excise on alcopops is something that will be supported by us ...

Come 1 May, not even a week after:

What we’ve learned—

said the Leader of the Opposition—

is that they spin a few things out into the newspaper like the outrageous half a billion dollar tax binge ...

This guy, a former doctor, a former president of the AMA, thinks that binge drinking amongst our young is just a fantasy. It is out there with the other fantasies of inflation and all the other challenges facing the community.

On the baby bonus, they have three positions. The Leader of the Opposition said on 2 May:

Every mother loves her baby. Every baby is valued and Mr Rudd should value all babies equally.

The shadow Treasurer said on 3 May, the next day:

I don’t believe there should be any means testing ...

Then on 7 May the shadow Treasurer said:

Look, there is no question that a millionaire does not need the baby bonus ...

He would know. The opposition has four positions on inflation, five positions on excise, six positions on pensions and on climate change, who would know? We simply do not know. It is impossible to define what their positions are because they are all over the shop, whether it is putting up shadecloth in outer space or over the Great Barrier Reef, whether it is that it does not exist or it does exist, whether we should have ETS—yes or no—whether Kyoto is good or bad, whether we should have the Asia Pacific climate pact—remember that? They do not talk about that. Remember the new Kyoto; what happened to that? The global system is called Kyoto, now they support it, having ridiculed us for our consistent position year after year on tackling climate change.

In this House today it was pretty interesting because yesterday I got the first question about the issue of transport and climate change but today they tried to put together two answers over two days and a quote that was about Malcolm Turnbull to suggest that I was saying something that I was not. My position is very clear and has always been clear. For those opposite, who just do not get it, it is pretty clear: climate change requires a whole-of-government strategy. Transport must be a part of climate change strategy. It is very simple. Too hard for them to understand, but a consistent position that I have held since I entered this chamber in 1996 is that climate change requires a whole-of-government strategy. That is why they did not put a question to me today about those issues—they did not want to hear a response.

They talk about government inquiries. According to the 2005-06 annual reports of government departments, the Howard government had 501 reviews and task forces set up in one financial year. There was the review of the administrative arrangements for tourist shopping, the review of the random sample survey program, the review of the draft national standard for manual handling, the forms and letters task force—we await that with anticipation—the senior executive service 360 degree review and coaching feedback; there were reviews right across the board.

Meanwhile, if you look at the portfolios held along this frontbench, a frontbench of which I am proud to be a part, what you see in each and every area is an enormous achievement over just six months in turning around the ship of state, which essentially was stuck, crashed on the rocks and going nowhere. The opposition spent all of last year worrying about whether the member for Higgins should take over from the member for Bennelong. That was what obsessed them all of last year. All of this year there has been just one issue—whether the member for Bradfield will retain his tenuous hold on the leadership. That is why we see backflips, even on positions that they have said they support, such as on same-sex superannuation entitlements. Even issues such as these—which they say they support—they cannot support because they have always got to appeal to the right wing extremists who gave Brendan Nelson the leadership of the Liberal Party.

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