Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her previous answer and to this cheque drawn by Bruce Wilson in 1995 from the AWU Members Welfare Association for $15,000—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will desist.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

with handwritten instructions for payment of $10,000 to K Spyridis, a Melbourne builder. Can the Prime Minister guarantee that this payment was not for her home renovations?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have dealt with these matters publicly.

Opposition members: No!

Before the dirt team starts catcalling, let us be very clear here. I have dealt with these allegations publicly and I can guarantee that what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition refers to was not to my benefit and did not pay for renovations at my home. This is smear, pure and simple. What the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said in her question before—the allegation there about clothing—was smear, pure and simple.

Opposition members: Not clothing!

Well, the allegation about whatever the—

Ms Julie Bishop interjecting—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has asked her question.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no amount of screaming that makes this falsehood true. I have answered this clearly and publicly on the public record now since 1995. I paid for the renovations at my home. This is smear, pure and simple.

Let us see how the opposition has put this smear, pure and simple, together. First, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has spent time with a man who has said he believes he is guilty of fraud and is looking for immunity from that fraud as well as a series of other assertions about his conduct that he himself has made that would make you wonder why the Deputy Leader of the Opposition would spend time with such a person. Then the Deputy Leader of the Opposition today has referred to an affidavit from Bob Kernohan. It is a matter of longstanding public record that this affidavit was drawn up by John Pasquarelli of One Nation. So there we have the Deputy Leader of the Opposition meeting with a man who, on his own admission, is guilty of fraud, and there is the Deputy Leader of the Opposition coming into this parliament and relying on the work of One Nation for smear, pure and simple.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The matters that the Prime Minister is going to have absolutely nothing to do with the question she was asked, which was about the $10,000 paid to K Spyridis. She was asked if it was for her home renovations.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He's got his dirt file with him!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you want it? You can have it!

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will remove that folder and not use it as a prop for the rest of question time, because otherwise we are just going to have childish antics for the rest of the afternoon. The Prime Minister has the call.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker, and you are absolutely right; the terminology 'childish antics' is absolutely right.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Answer the question!

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have answered the question. It is absolutely right—childish antics, sleaze and smear, because we are dealing with an opposition with not one policy for the nation's future, a man who is incapable of generating a policy for the nation's future and a man who does not have the guts to front this sleaze campaign himself.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. I refer the Prime Minister to her previous answer. Can the Prime Minister explain why Mr Spyridis would go to AWU offices in Melbourne in 1995 demanding payment for work he did on her home renovations if he believed she was paying for the renovations herself?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Prime Minister is being asked to comment on what someone else's motivations might be. That cannot possibly be in order.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the point of order, Madam Speaker: the question arises directly out of the answer the Prime Minister gave to the previous question, about her home renovations, and the believability of that answer when she claimed she paid for them herself. Why would the builder go to the AWU offices to ask for payment?

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. The Prime Minister has the call.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Speaker. This matter is dealt with on the transcript of the internal review of Slater & Gordon from September 1995. So, if the Deputy Leader of the Opposition wants the answer to this question, read that transcript, where the matter is dealt with extensively, clearly and truthfully. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition is in here engaged in smear in matters that have been clarified on the public record and in the public domain for some time now, and no amount of shaking of heads or pretence from people sitting on the front bench makes it anything other than that.

In August, through a press conference with the press gallery, one of the longest press conferences ever held in the nation's history by a Prime Minister, I answered questions going to this matter, which was then on the public record because the transcript from the Slater & Gordon interview was on the public record. Here is the Deputy Leader of the Opposition without one shred of proof, without one reason to doubt what is in the public record on this matter—not one shred of proof, not one thing available to her which enables her to raise a realistic doubt about what I said in that 1995 transcript. This is truly pathetic.