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

The member for North Sydney’s question goes to the matter of economic responsibility, and economic responsibility in turn depends on whether you are going to support the independence of the economic institutions of this country, including the Reserve Bank and the Secretary of the Treasury, and including the independence and integrity of the regulators. Once again we have the member for Canning out there today hooking into the Secretary of the Treasury. It says here:

When asked about the Secretary of the Treasury the member for Canning says that he is an ‘activist’. It is unusual for a head of the Treasury to behave in this way. He is probably the first one to show those tendencies.

We then go on to the member for O’Connor who goes on to say:

What is going on down at the Treasury? John Howard in a conversation going back to the opposition days said to me, ‘If in doubt, take Treasury’s advice.’ That was because in the past they put policy before politics. They really need to take a close look at themselves. They used to be one department that was held in high regard even in opposition.

So today, on this day when the debate on the future of the economy is again central to our concerns in this parliament, we have the attack dogs of the Liberal Party out there attacking once again—

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