Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Once again, we see that the Leader of the Opposition has come to parliament today with a mouthful of insults and a mind completely blank when it comes to ideas. That is not national leadership. On the question of telling the truth, I distinctly recall the Leader of the Opposition, before the election in 2004, when talking about the Medicare safety net, giving a commitment that it would not be changed and making a 'cast-iron commitment, absolutely'. He was asked about the percentage of out-of-pocket costs and he said 'an absolutely, rock-solid, ironclad commitment'—smashed, of course, the day after the election.

Then on the question of carbon pricing, which the Leader of the Opposition asked me about, who said this, 'An emissions trading scheme probably is the best way to put a price on carbon'? Who said that? That would be the Leader of the Opposition. So for the Leader of the Opposition to come in with his insults and his confected outrage really is not persuasive at all. National leadership requires us to tackle the challenges of the future.

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