George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I don't accept that that's what he said and I don't accept that that was the issue to which he was responding when he made those remarks. I have so much experience of Labor senators misrepresenting and misquoting statements by members of other places that I don't accept it, Senator Gallagher. But I tell you what I do accept. I do accept what Mr Bill English, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, had to say about this sordid affair when he said in question time in the New Zealand parliament yesterday:

These are serious issues—to interfere in another country's politics—and it appears there have been significant misjudgments by the member's fellow Opposition party—

a reference to the Australian Labor Party.

I also accept what the Leader of the Opposition in New South Wales, Ms Jacinda Ardern, had to say when she said: