John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I can assure the Leader of the Opposition that if I had anything to hide I would not have established the royal commission. It is as simple as that. The Leader of the Opposition gets very worked up, but let me just calmly remind the House of this. Let me read from the terms of reference. I read these terms of reference advisedly: ‘It necessarily follows that the knowledge of the Commonwealth’—and ‘the Commonwealth’ there is used generically, so that includes me, it includes all of my colleagues, it includes public servants and it includes the secretary of the department—‘of any relevant fact is a matter to be addressed by this inquiry.’

That is Mr Cole. Could I let the Leader of the Opposition into a secret: I think the Australian public will place more reliance on Mr Cole’s findings than on the Leader of the Opposition’s fulminations. We will leave that to later on. Continuing to read from the terms of reference:

It necessarily follows that the knowledge of the Commonwealth of any relevant facts is a matter to be addressed by this inquiry and is within the existing terms of reference in the letters patent.

That is what Mr Cole said. That is not John Howard, Alexander Downer or Mark Vaile.

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