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

I am particularly grateful for the intervention by the member for North Sydney, because he was the minister at the time. When these matters came to the public debate, he was the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Insofar as I can work out, the minister in that capacity referred these allegations to a range of different investigative bodies. He referred these matters to (1) the Australian Electoral Commission, (2) the Australian Taxation Office and (3) the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The Workplace Authority and the Australian Industrial Registry also undertook inquiries—that is five. Referring matters to specialised areas of government at both a state and a federal level ensures that the body with the appropriate legislative responsibilities and investigative powers can undertake a thorough examination of the issues. The appropriate course here is to allow these investigations, which are on foot, including that of the AEC, to proceed.

On the statement by the national secretary of the Labor Party: I will check where that is up to and whether his investigations have concluded. I say again that I encourage anyone who has any information relevant to these matters to submit it to the relevant authorities, of which there are a large number conducting investigations based on the actions by the minister when he exercised a ministerial office on this side of the House.

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