Katharine Murphy, deputy political editor

theguardian.com, Friday 24 January 2014

He chose to take the ‘low road of playing domestic politics’, says opposition leader of PM’s speech at World Economic Forum

Abbott took a swipe at Labor's stimulus package during the global financial crisis. Photograph: Ruben Sprich/Reuters

Labor has criticised the prime minister Tony Abbott’s decision to use the international platform of the World Economic Forum to broadcast domestic political squabbles.

The federal opposition leader Bill Shorten on Friday branded Abbott’s outing in Davos, his first major economic speech as prime minister, an “embarrassing performance”.

The prime minister, Shorten said, had taken the “low road of playing domestic politics on the international stage”.

Abbott on Thursday night used a keynote address to the World Economic Forum to outline his objectives for a G20 meeting in Brisbane, lay down some broad philosophical markers for his new government on the subject of economic policy, and deliver a clip around the ears for Labor.

The domestic partisanship was only a brief foray in the speech, but the prime minister in essence blamed Labor for undoing the good work of the Howard government in returning the commonwealth budget to surplus.

Abbott used his remarks in Davos as a point of contrast.

Labor had delivered a stimulus package during the global financial crisis, and kept spending, because the then government had a philosophy of “spending its way to prosperity”, the prime minister argued. The new Coalition government in Canberra was pro-market and small government.

There is a convention in Australian politics that domestic issues stay at home when leaders embark on overseas visits, and Labor on Friday argued Abbott would be better placed to respect it.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen objected to Abbott’s effort to “rewrite Australia’s economic history” – and he said the prime minister had chosen the wrong audience to prosecute his case.

Bowen said Australia had attracted positive international attention for coming through the global financial crisis without a major economic contraction – one of the few developed economies in the world to have that record.

“Global political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum know and respect the record of the Australian economy coming through the global financial crisis,” Bowen said on Friday.

Tony Abbott ‘embarrassing’ in Davos, says Bill Shorten | Business | theguardian.com