Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Coalition members of the Senate committee recommended the bill be opposed. They were going to oppose it until, I am told by coalition MPs, the opposition leader personally intervened and demanded—this is true—that the coalition support this bill in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. Do you want to know our position? We are opposing the bill. That is the truth of the matter. Let us hear just briefly what Professor John Hewson, the Leader of the Opposition's former employer, said about him: 'Tony is genuinely innumerate. He has no interest in economics and no feeling for it.' There are 70 billion reasons why this man should never be the Prime Minister of Australia. How many dollars in a $70 billion black hole? There are 70 billion of them! You should never be the Prime Minister of Australia.

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