Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I am having to follow the Leader of the Opposition—what very large shoes to fill when it come to these issues. I seek very humbly to step into those very large shoes and identify some of the issues that the Prime Minister chose to deliberately omit, ignore or mislead us on, or engage in slippery conduct about, during the course of question time. Firstly, I remind the Australian people of the Prime Minister’s words in 2008 when he said he would ‘assist working families in dealing with housing affordability and other matters which helped the family budget’.

Yesterday in this place we had the unseemly sight of a rather slippery Treasurer claiming that I had misled the Australian people about the Australian Bureau of Statistics data in relation to the prices of everyday goods. I challenge the Treasurer to come into this place and, for once, have the courage to debate me. We had a debate on Q&A just a few days after my appointment and since that time the Treasurer has refused to debate me. It will come as a surprise to my colleagues that the Treasurer, Mr Wayne Swan, runs away from an economic debate, runs away from confrontation that may at the end of the day illustrate that he is an empty vessel! We know that Dr Henry is the Treasurer. I can see all the Treasurer’s colleagues across this table leaping to his defence right now. They are all screaming and interjecting, defending the Treasurer’s honour as I slur him in this MPI.

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