http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-28/abbott-seizes-on-labor-leadership-speculat...The Opposition is making the most of the latest outbreak of leadership speculation and internal dissent in Labor following the Government's decision to import 1,700 foreign workers for a mining project.
The Government announced its first Enterprise Migration Agreement (EMA) for mining magnate Gina Rinehart's $9 billion Roy Hill project in Western Australia at the weekend.
But it was revealed earlier that Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who had been visiting the United States, was not informed of the EMA until after she returned to Australia on Wednesday last week.
That served to raise questions about whether her ministers had kept her in the dark and why.
And weekend reports that chief government whip Joel Fitzgibbon was canvassing numbers for a possible Kevin Rudd leadership challenge have also thrown the spotlight back on Ms Gillard's leadership.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott used Question Time in Parliament today to seize on what he says is a "Government at war with itself".
"[It's] a Government where the left hand and the right hand don't know what each other are doing," Mr Abbott said.
"It's more obvious that this is a divided and dysfunctional Government. It's also obvious that the faceless men are gathering around the Prime Minister.
"But it's really up to the Australian people, rather than the faceless men, to decide who should be the prime minister of this country."
The internal Labor division is coming from both the left and right, with Senator Doug Cameron saying the agreement does not do enough to protect workers.
"I think the policy is a policy that needs a lot of looking at," he said.
"You could drive a 747 airbus through the policy in terms of protections for workers."
And the right's Kevin Thompson is also unhappy.
"If we go down the path of Enterprise Migration Agreements, we will end up with a situation where we have foreign companies using foreign workforces to send our resources in foreign ships to foreign countries for the use and enjoyment of foreign customers," he said.'Hypocrisy'
Some in Labor have accused Ms Gillard of blaming the two ministers involved - Immigration Minister Chris Bowen and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson - by suggesting they came up with the scheme without consulting her.
Under questioning, Mr Bowen spelt out the chronology of events.
"There was, of course, substantial consultation between my office and other ministerial offices, and detailed brief was provided to the Prime Minister's office early in the week of the 21st of May," he said.The Opposition then probed the Prime Minister about when she found out.
She responded: "I was fully briefed about the Roy Hill Enterprise Migration Agreement, having returned from Chicago on Wednesday."
"Does she [the Prime Minister] support the agreement lock, stock and barrel, including the employment of up to 1,700 foreign workers?" Mr Abbott asked.
Ms Gillard's answer, eventually, was a yes."The Roy Hill agreement is about jobs, is about training, is about Indigenous Australians, is about this agreement for up to 1,715 foreign workers. And it has my support," she said.
But the Opposition said her hesitation was telling.
"A prime minister who had to be dragged kicking and screaming to support her own minister in the Parliament today," Opposition migration spokesman Scott Morrison said.
Mr Morrison also accused Treasurer Wayne Swan of hypocrisy, after he recently criticised Ms Rinehart in an essay.
"Wayne Swan today has outed himself as a double agent in his own phony class war he's on one side saying he's opposed to mining magnates and on the other he's doing special deals with them," he said.
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