The government has a view that we can get through this global recession better than most other developed countries in the world. We can do that if we are strong, we can do that if we are united and we can do that if we put in place a very substantial fiscal stimulus such as the fiscal stimulus recommended by the IMF. But, of course, it does not suit your political agenda because, as we know, you have got the member for Higgins breathing down your neck. He is actually the architect of poor old Malcolm’s strategy. The member for Higgins, as this vital debate in the history of the country is going on, is currently in the dining room. He is currently in the dining room with the member for Menzies. He is currently in the dining room with the member for Warringah. That is what they think about the strategy from those on that side of the House.
Tony Abbott missed the key economic vote of the new Parliament - the $42 billion fiscal stimulus package - because he fell asleep after a night of drinking witnessed by MPs from both sides of Parliament. Mr Abbott told Chief Opposition Whip Alex Somlyay that he missed five divisions on the night of Thursday, February 12 because he fell asleep in his office. His nap followed dinner in the Members' Dining Room with Peter Costello, Kevin Andrews and Peter Dutton, where numerous bottles of wine were consumed.
Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott during a January 2013 NovaFM radio interview: "I’d probably be too much of a Grog Monster for ya fellas."
The contrast was there during the global financial crisis when those opposite refused to support our stimulus. Indeed, the Leader of the Opposition slept right through the critical vote. He was drunk and did not come into the House. He slept right through that vote—
To date I can find no Hansard record of Mr. Abbott seeking, by way of personal explanation, to deny the assertions of his inebriation on 12 February 2009.
The only public explanation he offered at the time was to a Sunday Telegraph journalist and he hung up on that journalist when he was asked if he was drunk: "That is an impertinent question. I had dinner with the gentlemen you mentioned, there's no doubt we had a couple of bottles of wine, I wasn't keeping count, maybe two. This is an impertinent question. I'm going to politely hang up now.''
