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

On the question of the urgency in this matter, it keeps coming back to the proper use of public resources, including the national estate. The Prime Minister asserts it is not a fundraiser at all. Yet if that is the case why then did he see fit to repay some money? There is a bit of a logical contradiction here: it is not a fundraiser, but we feel a bit guilty about it so we will return some of it. Of course, we do not know how much has been returned, nor do we know at this stage on how many occasions the Lodge and Kirribilli have been used for this purpose. These are mysteries yet to be unfolded for us all in this place. But when it comes to the use of these resources and the national estate, the Prime Minister has sought throughout this debate that we have been having all week in this parliament to evade basic accountability to the parliament on these key questions of truth. It happened in 2005; we know that. It happened in 2007. It was $7,500 a kick. There were a couple of hundred people rolling in the door, with Mr Howard greeting them, saying, ‘Welcome to the canapes.’ By the way, here is a question: which of the staff are actually engaged at this point? There are the official staff at Kirribilli and the Lodge. Then there are those which are seen to be engaged for the occasion. Are they separately accounted for in this exercise? These are matters to which we still do not have the answers, Prime Minister. But when you go through the final list of the 2007 function and look at all numbers listed, it is quite plain that the main event, the main attraction on that program for your $7,500 investment—

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