Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Let me say that what we have seen from the Prime Minister today is a long sermon of self-congratulation. In that long sermon of self-congratulation he failed to explain the fundamental contradiction at the heart of Australia’s economic policy right now—namely, the fact that we have a government which is still spending like a drunken sailor and we have a Reserve Bank which is desperately trying to restrain spending by consumers. We have, in the words of the Shadow Treasurer, a Treasury which has its foot flat on the accelerator and a Reserve Bank which is desperately pumping the brakes. This is the contradiction at the heart of economic policy in our country right now which the long, self-satisfied sermon that we have had from the Prime Minister failed to explain.

Let me say at the outset of my response that I am pleased that Australia seems thus far to have avoided a recession. A recession would exact a terrible human cost. But I am very disappointed that, thanks to the misguided policies of this government, the price of its policies has been mortgaging our future not just for years but for decades—a price that we did not need to pay. Let me also say to members opposite and to any who are following the proceedings of this chamber: voters do not like governments and prime ministers who look too pleased with themselves, and that is precisely what we saw from this government and this Prime Minister today.

The other thing that voters do not like is governments that are talking about the past rather than the future. They do not like governments that are talking about what they did for voters last year rather than what they might do for voters this year. The trouble with this government is that it is quite happy to talk about last year and all the money it spent and it is quite happy to talk about 2050 and all the things that it would like to do then, but it is not prepared to talk about tough decisions that it is prepared to take in 2010—and 2010 is what the voters of Australia are interested in. The Prime Minister’s focus on last year—a focus that was repeated by every minister answering an opposition question today—suggests very much that this is a Prime Minister who is already conscious of political mortality and that this is a government that is already conscious of the fact that it is past its prime. This is a government whose glory days are gone. The Prime Minister’s speech was very, very redolent of a government already in decline.

Let us be clear about why we have this ministerial statement today from the Prime Minister. We have this statement from the Prime Minister today to cover up for his embarrassment yesterday. Yesterday the government had the worst question time that it has had since coming into office. It had the worst question time that it has had since coming into office, because the Prime Minister is incapable of explaining his climate change policy. He is incapable of explaining why a $120 billion money-go-round is a better policy than a simple and straightforward purchasing of emissions reduction and environmental improvements. There will be a $120 billion impost on consumers, because they will have to pay for the $120 billion worth of permits that business has to buy—the cost of which will flow through to every, single purchase in our economy. That is why we are having this statement—because the Prime Minister was so embarrassed yesterday.

He actually wanted to effectively abolish question time today. What was going to happen today was that we were going to have a prime ministerial self-congratulatory statement at the beginning of question time today. Instead of a major announcement of new policy to meet a crisis, instead of an appropriate announcement of a developing response to some disaster, instead of some commemoration of some tragedy overseas—the sort of thing which might properly have detained the House at the start of question time—the Prime Minister, in his arrogance and in his embarrassment, wanted to deliver his ministerial statement at two o’clock today.

I sought to speak to the Prime Minister to indicate that this was an abuse of parliament. The Manager of Opposition Business spoke to the Leader of the House to make the same point. Mr Speaker, if I may, I want to say to you that the fact that this statement did not go ahead at two o’clock but has more properly taken place after question time is a tribute to your role as the custodian of the traditions of this House. I want to thank you for the work that you have done today to stop this parliament being abused in the way that the Prime Minister proposed to do.

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