Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, what a tangled web they weave. Both the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Opposition said yesterday that Senator Abetz raised this matter in the Senate because it was in the Daily Telegraph. They made those statements about Senator Abetz’s testimony to the Senate, or his presentation to the Senate on Friday. These matters did not appear in the Telegraph until Saturday. On the question of honesty in public life, I would suggest that those opposite might reflect on that as well.

Then, of course, we had this extraordinary concoction in the papers yesterday, with the Leader of the Opposition again using his journalist of choice from the Australian, Mr Milne, to reflect and to provide a briefing concerning the accuracy of the recorded conversation involving Dr Charlton. The core of it is this: the Leader of the Opposition in that briefing said as follows: he did not approach Dr Charlton; Dr Charlton approached him. Yet we had Malcolm Farr in the Daily Telegraph providing a simultaneous account of what occurred before adding, ‘The Leader of the Opposition was seeking out Dr Charlton and approached him.’ Again, what a tangled web those opposite weave on the question of honesty.

Can I say also that the most extraordinary thing that I have seen so far in this debate is the accusation today that this entire false, fake, forged email affair is somehow the fault of the government. The silence on the part of those opposite sitting behind the Leader of the Opposition says it all—the stunned silence of his backbench. For this Leader of the Opposition to have mounted a campaign against my integrity and that of the Treasurer over recent times on the basis of a forged, fake, false email and then, when it is found out, to turn around and say that he has no responsibility for this but that it is the fault and responsibility of the government says how detached from reality he has become.

I say to the honourable member for Bradfield and, in his absence, the member for Higgins—the senior statesmen of the Liberal Party: tap this man on the shoulder. He must resign. Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.

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