Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is again to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Prime Minister’s previous answer, in which he said that he made no such commitment as that contained in this Liberal Party ad, which ran thousands of times on national television. Given that the Prime Minister has today formally disowned the Liberal Party’s ads on interest rates in the last election campaign, why should working families now believe any Liberal Party ads on interest rates in the upcoming election campaign?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The thing that working families should believe is what they experience under different governments. I am very happy that the Leader of the Opposition has asked me to talk about the experience of working families under different governments. I am very proud to contrast the experience of working families under this government with the experience of working families under the government of the party to which the Leader of the Opposition is formally committed, the Australian Labor Party. We know what his secret desires about political affiliation are, but he does formally belong to the Australian—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance. This is the third question about the government’s advertising and whether the Australian public should believe—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat. The Prime Minister has only just begun his answer. The Prime Minister is very much in order.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not pretend to this House or to the Australian public that every working family in this country is enjoying to the full the very strong and prosperous economy we now have. There are some who are, through no fault of their own, missing out. But, if you look at the proper measures that affect the living standards of Australian families, those measures suggest that they have fared better under this government than they did under the previous Labor government—and not only that but that they will fare better through a continuation of this government than they would under a Rudd Labor government. That is what this debate is all about: whether working families were better off under Labor than they are now or would be better off under Labor in the future than they are now.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. With respect, this is not a debate; this is an answer to a question. The question was about government advertising.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat. If the member wishes to raise a point of order, he should come straight to his point of order, not debate it. The Prime Minister is in order.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

By any measure, be it unemployment, be it interest rates, be it real wages or be it levels of taxation, working families in this country—generally speaking; not every one of them—have fared better under this government than they did under the previous government.