Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Whether he resigned or whether he was sacked—I understood he was sacked, and if I am wrong I am happy to retract that—the issue was it all happened because he failed to declare on his register of interests that he had shareholdings in various businesses. I will quote what Mr Howard had to say at that time, and the reason I am doing this is that I am wondering why Mr Abbott has not taken up the issue with Senator Sinodinos about this. Mr Howard said at the time:

This is a clear breach of the Senate rules and of his obligation to me—

that being Mr Howard. He went on:

He had no alternative but to resign.

So I take it back, Senator, and I apologise—he did resign. He was going to be sacked so he jumped first, obviously. The quote went on:

I am frankly angry and disappointed at the Senator's conduct.

This is still former Prime Minister—