Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is again to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Prime Minister’s answer to my previous question on Kirribilli and the Lodge, their use for fundraising purposes by the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister’s answer that neither residence had been used for Liberal Party fundraising. If that is so, why did the Prime Minister say the following just before question time? Question: ‘The nub of this—it is fundraising, isn’t it?’ Answer from Howard: ‘Yes. But, well, it is that and, well, sometimes gatherings of that type that I have eluded to, you know, might in a remote way be associated with fundraising.’ Prime Minister, will you confirm finally the fact which stares the entire country in the face that both these events at Kirribilli and the Lodge were fundraisers for the Liberal Party, pure and simple?

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

The answer is: they were not, and the attempt by the Leader of the Opposition to distort something I said at a news conference into a contradiction is absolutely baseless, and I reject it.