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

I withdraw. The Prime Minister came into the parliament today and the day before and said, 'What I said before the 2007 election doesn't count because there was an election intervening.' Well, let me remind her, she tried to do this immediately after the 2007 election. It is not like she said, 'Oh, I have changed my mind and I am going to take it to the 2010 election.' She tried to break her commitment prior to the 2010 election, and what did the 2010 election give her? Did it give her a mandate? No, because it did not give her a victory.

This was an election that gave her no mandate for anything because this is a Prime Minister who was selected, not elected. This was a Prime Minister who had not won an election. This is a Prime Minister who has won a negotiation, and we all know how she did it. She did it by telling people what they wanted to hear and making commitments that she knew full well that she was never, ever going to be able to deliver.

Let's keep focusing on this because she came into this chamber yesterday and said, 'But there was the 2010 election.' I invite members of this parliament to carefully peruse Labor's health policy at the 2010 election and they will find not a single mention—not one—of Labor's determination to renew this attack on private health insurance. So this is a Prime Minister who has demonstrated again and again and again that she will say or do anything to save her own skin. She said no to the carbon tax to try to win an election and then she said yes to the carbon tax to stay in the Lodge.

Mr Baldwin interjecting—

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