Abbott launches last ditch attack on PM

Tony Abbott has declared Kevin Rudd "unfit" to be prime minister, launching a
stinging personal attack against his opponent in what may be one of their last
showdowns before an election as new reports emerged that Mr Rudd's leadership was
under threat.
ABC Television on Wednesday night reported that senior ministers and factional
powerbrokers were in talks for a possible move against Mr Rudd, who has slumped in
the opinion polls.
But the ABC said Mr Rudd's deputy, Julia Gillard, had not put her hand up.
One senior Victorian minister told AAP they were unaware of any counting of the
numbers.
Earlier, as Labor and the coalition positioned themselves for what might be the last
day of parliament before an election, Mr Abbott turned up the heat on the prime
minister, who flies out to Toronto on Friday for a meeting of G20 leaders.
The opposition leader used parliament to mock Labor's achievements, deriding its
paid parental leave scheme as a "rebadged" baby bonus and claiming its broadband
network would take years to make an impact.
He ran through a litany of "failures", including the pink batts program, the shelved
emissions trading scheme and the biggest "crime" of all, the resource super profits
tax.
"A prime minister who has so misjudged a decision of this magnitude ... is a prime
minister he is no longer fit to govern this country," Mr Abbott said.
Mr Rudd didn't dignify the attack with a response, leaving it to his colleagues to
take on the opposition.
Earlier Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner accused the opposition of being a policy
vacuum.
"We have heard an awful lot from the leader of the opposition about what they would
undo but very little about what they would do, were they to be elected," he said.
"It is long overdue that we heard ... what his economic strategy is, what his health
reform strategy is, what his education reform strategy is, what his national
security policy is. It is long overdue that we actually got some policy."
Mr Rudd is saving his energy to try to arrest a prolonged slide in the opinion polls.
With the timing of an election still anyone's guess, the government is moving on
multiple fronts to convince the electorate it deserves another term.
It has moved to provide some assurance about Australia's military commitment to the
increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan, setting a broad timetable for a partial
withdrawal of troops.
In the wake of the deaths of another three diggers in Afghanistan, Defence Minister
John Faulkner has signalled some troops may be brought home in two to four years.
The opposition had its own problems after Mr Abbott was forced to deny a senior
colleague's account of his speech to the coalition party room.
Mr Abbott was supposed to have said the coalition was "in reach of a famous victory"
but he later denied the quote as both sides compete for underdog status.
It also took a bit of a battering when former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull got
into a slanging match with Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese over who was to
blame for failing to secure funding for a fence at the notorious Sydney suicide
spot, the Gap.