Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I do withdraw, Madam Deputy Speaker. Over the past year the Leader of the Opposition has been running around like Chicken Little, saying the sky is going to fall in. And, of course, in that time, our economy has gone from strength to strength to strength. So when you look at that data, and see the performance of the Australian economy, and you reflect on all of the distortions that the Leader of the Opposition has been putting in place, you can see that he is unfit for high office—because he is constantly at war with the facts; he does not have the temperament and he does not have the ability to understand what is happening in our national economy. He would rather see the country and the economy fail than this government succeed, because he can never take a position in the national interest. For our part, we are focusing on policies which will grow our economy and spread the opportunities right around the whole of Australia. We understand how important it is to help households, and to help small businesses, that are not in the fast lane of the mining boom.

We had a motion in the House this morning that celebrated our strong economy, moved by the member for Fraser, and the Leader of the Opposition could not even bring himself to vote for that. This just shows how unfit for high office the Leader of the Opposition is. (Time expired)

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