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

The Leader of the Opposition is an insipidly weak man. He has no principles. He blows in the wind, as his loyalty blows between many people. That is reflected in the fact that he is moaning about us keeping our election commitments and each day he comes in to complain that we may be breaking election commitments. This is a Leader of the Opposition who has successfully dealt Labor out of any activity in relation to policymaking during this term of government. They thought they could paint us into a corner in relation to the debt limit. We did a deal with the Greens to remove the debt limit that Labor created but Labor could never keep. They thought they painted us into a corner on the repeal of the carbon tax and then we managed to do a deal with a number of senators to pass the repeal of the carbon tax. They thought they painted us into a corner in relation to FOFA and then we did a deal to get that through. Then they thought they painted us into a corner on the mining tax, and we managed to do a deal with reasonable senators as well.

I said last week that the Labor Party is travelling at high speed down into a cul-de-sac. I am proven absolutely right today. They are driving at high speed down into a cul-de-sac—a policy cul-de-sac but also a political cul-de-sac. Why so? That is because their only friends in this parliament are the Greens.

Ms Ryan interjecting—

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