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

Once again, the Leader of the Opposition should acquaint himself with an ancient proposition called truth. I know that is something which is increasingly foreign to his vocabulary and foreign to his behaviour. The minister for finance this morning was referring to the absence of advice before the committee that there was anything wrong with this course of action, and it is absolutely clear-cut from his statements that that is the case. Those opposite again are clutching at straws, hyperventilating on this particular matter, when out there in mainstream Australia people are dealing with the challenges of financial stability, dealing with the challenges of what happens with their mortgages, dealing with the challenges of what happens with employment and jobs. All we have from the alternative government here is an exercise in short-term partisan politics. I would say to those opposite they should get real with the economic interests of this country, get behind the government’s package of support for the economy, not by half measures but by full measures, and get behind the proper measures taken by this government in response to the advice of the regulators on this guarantee and the guarantee for wholesale term funding arrangements for the banks necessary to maintain financial stability in this country. And I would say to the Leader of the Opposition: that is the deepest and most fundamental concern of every household in Australia.

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