WAYNE Swan has accused Tony Abbott of being “drunk” and of missing a crucial vote in the House of Representatives on the economy.
In a fiery question time in which both Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd were absent for Hazel Hawke’s memorial service in Sydney, Treasurer Wayne Swan fielded a question from the opposition’s Joe Hockey on the apparent “failure” of Labor’s economic policies.
Mr Swan said the Coalition was focused on “talking down” the Australian economy and said the Opposition Leader had previously missed a vote on backing in Labor’s stimulus package.
“The Leader of the Opposition slept right through the critical vote, he was drunk, and didn’t come into the house – he slept right through that vote,” Mr Swan said.
He was later asked to withdraw his comment by Speaker Anna Burke after being met with outrage by the Coalition benches.
Manager of opposition business said Mr Swan had “vastly gone past what is considered reasonable in this place”.
But just moments after withdrawing his comment Mr Swan defended his referral to Mr Abbott.
“He was around the house earlier in the evening and he was witnessed by many people on this side of the house for his activities on that evening.
The Treasurer was subsequently warned by Ms Burke.
But Mr Swan persisted with his attacks.
“There is no length they will go to talk down our economy, to talk down our performance,” he said.
Labor rolled out several stimulus packages to help get the economy through the global financial crisis, including depositing cash into people’s bank accounts.
Australia now has one of the best economies in the developed world.
The Coalition has focused its attacks on the government this week on Labor’s record of broken promises.
After today there are just two more sitting days left for this parliament before the September election.