Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. Kevin Rudd is doing a remarkable job as Australia's ambassador to the United States. There will be members on the other side who have visited the United States during his time as the ambassador who will absolutely privately attest to that. Kevin has been a tour de force, as we all understand, in the United States Congress in a way which has created a generational change—for example, in establishing a seamless defence industrial base between our two countries, something that has been sought to be achieved for decades. It is his work, principally, in the United States Congress and across the administration which has brought that to fruition. His activities as the ambassador to the United States are entirely consistent with previous ambassadors. We could all go through the process of crawling through the expenses of former ambassadors to the United States, but the fact of the matter is that Kevin Rudd is there not just representing the government; he is representing us all, and he is doing an excellent job.

While he is doing that in the United States, while he is carrying the weight of our country in Washington, what we are doing here is addressing the cost-of-living pressures that are facing the Australian people. By and large, as we go about the business of doing that, we are faced with the opposition of those opposite. When we seek to provide tax breaks for every income earner, it's those opposite who are kicking up a storm in relation to that, albeit at the end of the day they vote for it. When we have taken measures to provide for energy rebates, when we have gone down the path of providing more affordable child care and cheaper medicines, it is those opposite who stand in the way of meaningful action in respect of dealing with the cost-of-living pressures that are faced by the Australian people.

We will go about our business of dealing with the cost-of-living pressures for the Australian people. Kevin Rudd is going about his business of representing everybody in this chamber and in this country in Washington, DC, and in that effort he is doing a sterling job.

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