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

I thank the member for North Sydney and the former minister for Work Choices for his contribution to the debate. What is a live concern for everyone in the nation is when they will seek to bring Work Choices back, because Work Choices is in the Liberal Party DNA.

Let us go to the three elements of the position put forward by the member for North Sydney in his question. The first is on economic stimulus. What they said when we introduced the economic stimulus plan was, ‘We, the Liberal Party, support it.’ Secondly, on the abolition of Work Choices what they have said is that Work Choices is dead. Thirdly, on the question of the emissions trading scheme, what did we have from the member for Flinders? When it came out in July last year, what did the member for Flinders say? He said:

Basically, what they’ve done—

that is, the government—

is they’ve dusted off the document that we had.

There you have those opposite saying that there is nothing different between them and us on emissions trading, saying that Work Choices is dead, supporting our economic strategy and trying to argue that somehow they have a credible basis on which to enter this debate today. Consistency, Joe, will help every day.

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