Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Sturt has confirmed they are opposed to that expenditure. Things are getting so confused over there that they are running around stabbing each other in the chest! You have the member for Sturt, the member for Dickson and the member for North Sydney all running around jockeying. What the community expects at the moment is leadership from political leaders, and what they want and what they are getting from the Rudd government is leadership to tackle the global financial crisis, to put in place decisive action—and it would help if those opposite got on board, because it is very important. What could be more irresponsible at a time of global financial crisis, for example, than to have the opposition attacking our regulators? What could be more irresponsible than that? Those over there are simply at sea when it comes to the whole question of the budget bottom line and what needs to be done to strengthen this economy and to protect jobs. Their attitude is: do nothing. Our attitude is to act decisively and put in place a range of policies which protect households and protect jobs.

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