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

Part of dealing with the challenge of ensuring that our measures are in place to deal with the global financial crisis depends on what happens in the Senate. We have complete disunity from those opposite about whether they are going to oppose or support the CPRS, and there is the disappearance of leadership on the part of the Leader of the Opposition as they voted in the Senate today, I am advised—I stand to be corrected on this—to put off a vote, that is, refusing to vote altogether. They voted not to vote. Business wants certainty. Businesses out there, as the generators of economic recovery, want the rules done, yet those opposite are saying, ‘Oh, no. Let’s not have any leadership on this question.’ There is no leadership also on the passage of a measure concerning alcopops. But leadership also means taking responsibility for your actions. Leadership means standing up and explaining the entirety of your dealings in relation to this fake email, the entirety of the dealings in relation to this individual public servant and confirming to the parliament full cooperation on the part of computer systems and the rest in terms of the investigation which the AFP have underway. It is necessary for the Leader of the Opposition, finally and formally, to do the decent thing: stand, apologise and resign.

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