Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion immediately:That this House censures the Prime Minister for failing to deny allegations that he or his office leaked information about a high security telephone conversation between the Prime Minister and the President of the United States. In particular that:

(1)

this security breach compromises the credibility and integrity of Australia’s diplomatic relationships with key international partners; and

(2)

the Prime Minister has failed, over numerous days, to fully explain to the Australian people the details in relation to the leak and his involvement in it; and

That the matter be referred to the Australian Federal Police for a full investigation as to whether there has been any breach of the Crimes Act or other relevant legislation.

The urgency of this motion is very clear. We have seen a Prime Minister who has been given the opportunity not once, not twice but again and again to deny that he leaked a self-serving account of a conversation between himself and the President of the United States—an account so self-serving that it presented him as a diplomatic encyclopaedia, a font of all knowledge, and the President of the United States, the chief executive of our greatest ally, as a fool. That was the impression he set out to create; and he leaked that to the Australian newspaper, which naturally gave it great importance. Then when he got the Australian newspaper, did the Prime Minister have second thoughts? No, he was pleased with the outcome because it gratified his vanity. It made him feel clever. He thought, ‘That’s good, people will know how smart I am.’ He did not care that he offended the President of the United States. He did not think that around the world prime ministers and presidents, chancellors, treasurers and officials would say, ‘You can’t talk to the Prime Minister of Australia—you can’t have a conversation with the Prime Minister of Australia unless you want to read about it on the front page.’

It was not until the White House, in an absolutely unprecedented step, went on the record in the Washington Post three days later and denied it, and the issue was taken up here. The Prime Minister did not deny that he had leaked the information but sought to deny that he alone had been aware of the existence of the G20. He tried to walk away from the libel of the President of the United States but he never denied that he was responsible for that leak. Let us consider what the Australian article said. This was not just a little bit of gossip that was picked up. It tells us:

KEVIN Rudd was entertaining guests in the loungeroom at Kirribilli House in Sydney when an aide told him George W. Bush was on the telephone.

It was 10.40pm on Friday, October 10.

The article goes on:

The Prime Minister, still clad in the suit he had worn to a business dinner in the city—

he works so hard that he had not had time to change into his black tie; he normally has dinner in formal wear, of course—

was polite and calm. “Have another drink while I take this call,”—

ever the gracious host—

Rudd told his guests as he slipped into the adjacent study.

The reporter wrote:

What followed was an extraordinary exchange in which Rudd—

the great polymath, he who knows all, told—

… the most powerful man in the world that a plan to address the global financial crisis through the G7 group of leading industrialised nations was wrong. Rudd, the former diplomat and Mandarin speaker—

Was he speaking Mandarin to the President of the United States? It is amazing what you discover when you read these articles with great care. He:

… advised Bush that the G7 plan … was out of touch with the reality of the Asia-Pacific century.

The article goes on to say:

Rudd was then stunned to hear Bush say: ‘What’s the G20?’

During the spirited 30-minute discussion that followed, Rudd continually brought Bush back to his contention that political imperatives and economic common sense demanded the involvement of China in any response to the crisis.

…            …            …

Rudd’s view on China was probably better informed than he let on to the US President.

He was modest! It goes on to say:

Just four days earlier, the fluent Mandarin speaker had discussed the global turmoil on the telephone with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The Prime Minister’s fingerprints are all over this. Every paragraph—every letter—is dripping with his DNA. This is his work. But we have given him every opportunity to deny it, and he has failed to do so. There has never been a more serial or more eloquent plea of guilty heard than the Prime Minister’s on this charge of leaking the conversation with the US President.

That demonstrates yet again that the Prime Minister’s claim to be a proficient diplomat is hollow. This is the Prime Minister who on his first international outing went out of his way to gratuitously offend Japan. This is the Prime Minister who fails to recognise that the people of the United States have an extraordinary respect for their head of state; for the office of the President. Even though a president may be unpopular—and George W Bush’s ratings are far from high—until he steps down from office every American will regard him as their commander in chief and as someone who demands respect.

What the Prime Minister has done in his vanity, in his naivety, in his lack of trust, in his lack of professionalism and in his betrayal of Australia’s reputation is offend not just George W Bush—not just one president—but the people of the United States. President Obama and presidents in years to come will, when being called by a Prime Minister of Australia, be told by somebody from the state department—the same department that called in our ambassador for a dressing down; the same department whose ambassador made a personal protest about this to the Prime Minister—‘Do not forget that you can’t trust those Australians; remember what Kevin Rudd did to George W Bush.’

The Prime Minister has trashed our reputation. Many of the journalists watching us today have discussed this and heard the views of the diplomatic community in this city. Right around Canberra there are diplomats unbelieving that the Prime Minister could do this and repeating this comment: ‘You can’t say anything to this man unless you want to read about it the press.’

Confidence is a fragile thing. We have seen in the financial world how readily it has been shattered and how hard it is to restore. We have seen confidence undermined in the financial markets around the world. Just as with the world of finance, so with the world of politics and diplomacy. Nobody will speak to the Prime Minister of Australia now unless they want to read about it in the press. He has demonstrated that he cannot be trusted to keep confidential a conversation with the most powerful world leader. Every other head of government—such as the Prime Minister of England, the President of France and the Prime Minister of Italy—will say, ‘If he is going to peddle a self-serving story about a conversation with the President of the United States to denigrate the President’s reputation and inflate his own sense of self-importance then what will he do to me?’ Around the world, Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, is marked ‘not to be trusted’. This has been a shocking betrayal of our nation’s reputation.

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