John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

In listening to this MPI debate, I could not help but notice the word 'ambush' being used a lot. I thought perhaps that a definition might be of benefit to members of the opposition. It is hardly an ambush when you come into government and are faced with what you lot left us with. It is our job and our duty as members of parliament to sort that out. What we do to sort that out is hardly an ambush.

I would have thought an ambush was, say, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd lecturing the Chinese people in Mandarin. That was probably an ambush, especially considering that it really did annoy them. Probably we could say that Julia Gillard ambushed Kevin Rudd. I think we could say that Julia Gillard ambushed business. We could definitely say that Julia Gillard ambushed the Australian people with 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' That was definitely an ambush.

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