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

Speaking for myself, I can certainly rule them out. I am not aware that any members of my government have been involved in any commercial dealings. I will find out pretty quickly after question time. If that is wrong, I will find out very quickly. I want to thank the member for Grayndler. He has rendered meritorious service to the Liberal Party. I think he should get one of those long service awards. They were actually suggested by Ron Walker when he was the Federal Treasurer of the Liberal Party.

Let us come back to what this is all about. This is, amongst other things, an attempt by the Australian Labor Party to draw an equivalence between the Exclusive Brethren collectively and somebody who is a convicted felon and who is under a ban so far as contact between him and members of the Western Australian Labor Party is concerned. He is also somebody who, according to reports in the newspaper this morning, has been involved in an arrangement whereby the manipulation and the distortion of a parliamentary inquiry led to a company having to fork out $20 million in order to effect a court settlement. We are dealing here with serious corruption in Western Australia. This is an attempt by the Leader of the Opposition, and I say it is an attempt by the Leader of the Opposition because he has been talking to the member for Grayndler the whole time—

See this speech in context