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

At a time like this, Australians expect us to be working our butts off to support jobs and to support families and not be wasting our time with juvenile misrepresentations of propositions like they have been doing all week. All week they have been doing that. The shadow Treasurer is a world champion at it, but he is very sloppy, our Joe, because he misrepresents what is said all of the time. I think it is the case that Australians are fed up with the behaviour of the opposition in this House and up in the Senate. They are fed up with it. I can see today from the doorstops that so are some of the backbench over there. This is what the member for Bowman had to say on the doors today. He said: ‘It’s been a bit disappointing that the entire week has been consumed by an affair that isn’t making a great deal of difference around the kitchen table.’ I will tell you who is focused on the kitchen table: everybody on this side of the House. That is what we were doing back in February: supporting car dealers right around the country, trying to address the situation that had been brought about by the global recession. We were concerned about problems in the auto supply chain. That is what we were concerned about and genuine about.

See this speech in context