Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The first point is: I am not certain who that individual is. Secondly, during the visit to Sudan I had no meetings whatsoever concerning telecommunications of any description, nor was I in Sudan with any representative of that company. Furthermore, on the broad question of why members of parliament use sponsored travel, particularly when they are in opposition, if you had been shadow foreign minister for as long as I was, you would know there is no travel budget provided through the parliament. As a consequence, you rely upon private sponsorship. The way to maintain public accountability in this is to make sure that your pecuniary interest register declares all such sources of sponsored travel and is done so in full conformity with the laws of the country. That is my response to the honourable member’s question.

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