The federal opposition is continuing to attack Prime Minister Kevin Rudd over his trip to New York.
Rudd spent three days in New York last week where he met with world leaders to discuss climate change and financial regulatory reform.
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Helen Coonan criticised Mr Rudd for travelling abroad during a parliamentary sitting week.
She said domestic issues such as the ban on short-selling shares, the $4 billion cash injection for mortgage lenders, and the opposition’s bill to increase pensions by $30 a week demanded his attention.
“He (Kevin Rudd) left behind urgent national issues that demanded priministerial attention,” Senator Coonan told Sky News today.
“Kevin Rudd has left Australia’s pensioners high and dry, that’s a real social and moral issue, having admitted that he couldn’t live on what they have to live on.”
Senator Coonan said Mr Rudd was acting more like a chief bureaucrat than the prime minister.
“Mr Rudd is sort of styling himself as the chief bureaucrat instead of the prime minister who is actually going to take ultimate … responsibility for these very important steps.”
AAP