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

I am responding to the issue of consistency of economic policy, which is not understood by those opposite. So you had a speech given by the Assistant Treasurer on behalf of the Treasurer, and then in the summing up of the bill the Treasurer also gave his own speech—nothing extraordinary there at all. Both speeches, on 4 June and on 18 June, were on behalf of the Treasurer of Australia. Not surprisingly, they were consistent—just as the Assistant Treasurer in the former government used to give speeches to bills on behalf of the Treasurer in this House. The fact that they tried to pretend that there was no connection between the two, the fact that they did not try to table the said speeches, is very interesting. They have been caught out.

You can understand why they are worried about a debate about consistency in economic policy. You can understand why they have been so defensive, because this is now the sixth gaffe in some three days—two a day is the average of the member for Curtin. When it comes to plagiarism, when the member for Curtin became the shadow Treasurer she did not ask for extra staff—she asked for an extra photocopier in her office! The fact is that the shadow Treasurer was caught out—caught out plagiarising, and then caught out doctoring Hansard. This is what the Australian online says today:

Today Coalition sources confirmed the offending paragraphs of background were provided for her speech from the leader’s office—

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