Page 597 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 11 February 2009
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the Labor Party is concerned with is John Hargreaves’s retirement fund. That is the one of importance—John Hargreaves’s retirement fund. And Mr Stanhope’s retirement fund; that is another important future fund the Labor Party is worried about.
Mr Hargreaves: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I let it run but, because Mr Coe was referring to the Jon Stanhope retirement fund and then my retirement fund, there is an implication in there that we might do something improper with funds available to us administratively. I want him, now, to prove whether he is a boy or a man and stand up and withdraw it.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, there is no point of order.
MR COE: The only future fund the Labor Party are concerned about is the future fund, the retirement fund, of some of their members, because they are in retirement mode. Why wouldn’t they think about their future? Why wouldn’t they think about their future beyond 2012? But who knows? With the economic crisis and super funds going the way they are, maybe we will see Mr Hargreaves and Mr Stanhope for another term or two after this. We can but hope that they go to the next election.
Mr Barr spoke about how we do flip-flops. Let us look at the Labor Party—that great bastion of ideology, that great bastion of freethinkers and people that have conviction. These are the people that were economic conservatives a year ago. Now they are social democrats. If you go to the Labor Party website, click on “LaborTV”, click on “Kevin Rudd: economic conservative” and then hit the play button, you get this lovely picture of Kevin Rudd—I imagine in a commonwealth parliamentary office, probably in Brisbane—looking at the cameras, very sincerely looking at the cameras—
Ms Gallagher: Mr Speaker, on point of order: there has to be some relevance to the motion—
MR COE: Stimulus package.
Ms Gallagher: Watching LaborTV in his spare time—which I am sure turns him on—probably can be dealt with in the adjournment debate rather than in a motion about capital works delivery.
MR SPEAKER: There is no formal point of order, but, Mr Coe, it would be useful if you spoke to Ms Gallagher’s motion.
MR COE: That is right. What this is all about is showing what the Labor Party stand for and showing what their capability is for delivering infrastructure projects. Then you have a transcript:
A number of people have described me as an economic conservative.
When it comes to public finance, it’s a badge I wear with pride.
If elected Prime Minister, I’m committed to balancing the budget over the economic cycle, and maintaining the independence of the Reserve Bank.
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