Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like the House to take a moment to mark the death of the shadow Treasurer's economic policy principles. Many in this House will fondly remember the back-to-basics economic principles so lovingly nurtured by the shadow Treasurer, including his two favourite principles: smaller government and project commerciality. It is with great sadness that I report that, on Wednesday last week, at the tender age of just two years and one month, both of the shadow Treasurer's principles were brutally killed by the Leader of the Opposition. The cause of death? Being thrown under a bus! Autopsy results have shown that the small-government agenda was crushed under the weight of a $600 billion, taxpayer funded nuclear program. Forensic evidence of the crime scene shows that the second principle of commerciality was starved through the cruel neglect of private sector investors who just weren't interested.

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