Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

That is exactly right—they should be red. That is what we have seen from those opposite. We have seen the Prime Minister join the Treasurer and refuse to mention the level of debt. The previous speaker uttered the words ‘debt’ and ‘deficit’ but he would not say how big the deficit was. The Prime Minister spent an excruciating week going out of his way to reveal the most basic figures to the Australian people. No matter how hard it is to conceal it, the Prime Minister was determined to. We had the infamous interview on Lateline, where he was asked over and over again and refused to let the words pass his lips. It made the John Clarke interview look like a serious interview. That’s how pathetic it was. When asked the debt figures both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer took the fifth—and so they should, because those figures do incriminate them.

Those opposite know that. They did everything they possibly could all week to avoid levelling with the Australian people. The Australian people are beginning to wake up to it. They are beginning to wake up to the fact that Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan, our Prime Minister and our Treasurer, are not up to the job of economic managers. They might be up to the job of media pictures. I think it was probably a lineball call from the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister’s office on whether they should actually wear their hard hats here into the chamber!

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