PRIME MINISTER Kevin Rudd is running an "extraordinarily vain" Government that is outsourcing Australia's immigration program to people smugglers, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says.
Mr Turnbull was speaking yesterday at the Victorian Liberal Party's state council, where about 300 delegates gave him a standing ovation.
He told the party faithful in Geelong that the Government had created colossal failures that began with an overreaction to the global financial crisis and continued with mishandling the national broadband network and recent concerns over the continued arrival of asylum seekers.
Mr Turnbull characterised Mr Rudd as too arrogant to admit when he was wrong and too stubborn to correct his mistakes.
"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 even though the Reserve Bank had 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," Mr Turnbull said.
"And you wonder why the economy is starting to look like a car bunny-hopping around a car park, driven by a teenager.
"This is the product of Kevin Rudd's failure to take responsible action on the economy."
Mr Turnbull focused much of his speech on border protection. He said the Oceanic Viking issue was just one example of Labor's reckless handling of the country.
Australia has been trying for almost two weeks to persuade 78 Sri Lankans to 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 by authorities that changing immigration policies would result in Australia's borders no longer being kept under 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 said.
About 50 boats and 2200 people have arrived this year, a "real surge" in arrivals.
Climate-change negotiations with the Government were going well despite claims by Mr Rudd on Friday that some Liberals were trying to sabotage the talks because many were climate-change sceptics.
Meanwhile, the Government shirked a high-profile election promise to run Parliament House and MPs' electoral offices on clean energy.
It has also failed to deliver on a promise to upgrade all government office buildings to minimum five-star greenhouse ratings.
The election commitments were bolstered to mark Earth Hour 2008. In a joint press release Mr Rudd and Environment Minister Peter Garrett promised to set up an "Interdepartmental Committee on Government Leadership in Sustainability".
So far the committee - which was scheduled to report to Mr Rudd by June 2008 - has been silent, with no subsequent announcements or recommendations. There is doubt the committee has even been established.
Greens Senator Christine Milne has written to Mr Rudd expressing concern about the Government's "complete silence on the issue" since the committee was announced by Mr Rudd in March 2008.