Ludlam to Abbott: "You are Reading us Wrong".

Since last year's Australian federal elections, Tony Abbott's "conservative, centre-right, libertarian" Liberal/National government has enjoyed a virtual lack of opposition.

In such an environment, the exceptions become noteworthy; understandably so.

First it was Dr. Sharman Stone's turn. Last month, the government MP from Murray (Victoria) accused Abbott, federal treasurer Joe Hockey and Employment minister Eric Abetz of lying on the subject of wages and entitlements. The three men have mentioned repeatedly alleged high wages and excessive working conditions as explanation for the imminent closure of a series of manufacturing companies.

They were not alone in that: believe it or not, Labor current and former faceless men/trade unionists Paul Howes and Martin Ferguson also came forward to warn about the "high wages" Australian workers extort from their long-suffering bosses.

While it took Stone balls to say that and she deserves praise for saying it, it was a painfully limited statement. The Abbott government is much worse than that.

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Today we finally heard something more substantial.

Scott Ludlam, Greens senator for Western Australia, in a seven-minute speech to an almost empty WA Senate delivered a scathing attack on Abbott's "blundering and technically illiterate" government, for everything, from its "excruciatingly boring three-word slogans", homophobia, attacks on trade unions and racism to its austerian obsession which may still push Australia into a fully fledged recession.

It's a good speech, which you can hear below and whose transcript is here:

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Abbott's government could easily go into history as one of the worst Australia ever had to endure, Or see

Herndon, Colbert and Abbott, or, the Recession we Didn't Have to Have