Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker Burke, it speaks volumes, doesn’t it? A week has gone past, the last week of the sittings of this session of parliament and only in the last 30 minutes does the coalition seek to engage in a national economic debate. All the rest of the time the opposition sought to smear the Prime Minister and the Treasurer of Australia, and as an afterthought at five seconds to midnight, they no doubt thought that perhaps the media would get stuck into them because they have engaged in no debates about the future of this country, about economic policy, about emissions trading or about immigration. No debates until at five seconds to midnight they bring on a debate about the economy just so they would not be exposed for having had no interest in economic policy, only an interest in smearing the Prime Minister and the Treasurer.

On this sad occasion, when we have only a short time, I have been left with a little over 10 minutes to respond to one of the important economic discussions of our time. I point out in response to the statements that have been made by the shadow Treasurer that, since the budget was brought down in May, Australia’s AAA rating has been reaffirmed. So where is the basis of the concern about Australia’s standing, Australia’s capacity to borrow money and Australia’s fiscal position when our AAA rating has been reaffirmed?

See this speech in context