Turnbull slams 'vain' Rudd government

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is running an
"extraordinarily vain" government that is handing over Australia's immigration
program to people smugglers.

Mr Turnbull was speaking at the Victorian Liberal Party's state council on Saturday
where about 300 delegates gave him a standing ovation for a speech marked by
scathing criticism of the prime minister's leadership.
He said Mr Rudd's Labor government had created a string of colossal failures that
began with an overreaction to the global financial crisis and continued with the
mishandling of the national broadband network and concerns over the arrival of
boatloads of asylum seekers.
Mr Turnbull characterised the prime minister's speech on climate change sceptics a
day earlier as "slightly loopy" and said his leadership was "arrogant".
Mr Rudd was too arrogant to admit when he was wrong, and too stubborn to correct his
mistakes, the opposition leader said.
"This is an extraordinarily vain government and one that refuses to be accounted,"
Mr Turnbull said.
On the economy, he said Mr Rudd was refusing to realise that stimulus spending
needed to be cut back despite the Reserve Bank signalling a need to cool the economy
by raising interest rates twice in two months.
"We have the Reserve Bank in effect with a foot on the brake and Wayne Swan with a
foot on the accelerator. And you wonder why the economy is starting to look like a
car bunny-hopping around a car park, driven by a teenager," he said to a few
chuckles from the crowd.
He focused much of his speech on border protection, a hot topic that has allowed Mr
Turnbull to avoid talk of his own leadership, which was under intense scrutiny
recently.
Mr Turnbull said the impasse over the Oceanic Viking in Indonesia was just one
example of Labor's reckless management of the country.
Australia has been trying for almost two weeks to persuade 78 Sri Lankans to
voluntarily leave the Australian customs vessel and enter the Tanjung Pinang
Detention Centre on the Indonesian island of Bintan.
Mr Turnbull said Mr Rudd had ignored warnings that changing immigration policies
would result in a weakening of Australia's border control.
"Our borders should be secure, they were secure. We recklessly unpicked the policies
of the previous government that worked, and as a result he has outsourced our
immigration program to the people smugglers," Mr Turnbull told reporters.
About 50 boats and 2,200 people have arrived over the past 14 months, Mr Turnbull
said, calling it a "real surge" in arrivals.
On climate change, he told reporters after his speech at Geelong's Deakin University
that negotiations with the government on an emissions trading scheme were going
well, despite Mr Rudd claiming on Friday that the talks could be sabotaged by
climate change sceptics within the Liberal Party.
"That speech had a slightly loopy flavour to it," Mr Turnbull said of Mr Rudd's
comments. "It was really quite over the top. I think it just shows how desperate
he's become."
Mr Turnbull repeated his criticism of the government's planned national broadband
network, saying it had been announced with no business plan or feasibility study.
He suggested voters were losing faith in Labor because of dramatic policy
differences between the present and previous federal governments.
"We are a party of freedom, enterprise, the individual and small business," Mr
Turnbull said.
"Labor is a party of government, of big government, of government-knows-best. And
the arrogance of that approach is becoming more and more apparent to Australians
every day."
The conference continues on Sunday when Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu
will give an address.