Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I assume that, when the Leader of the Opposition read the Weekend Australian on Saturday, 25 October, the reason it was not raised at all by the Liberal Party until 29 or 30 October, and not raised by him until after that, was that he assumed, as did I when I read the same paper, that the central tenet of the report could not possibly be correct, that the central tenet of the report—which was that the President of the United States did not know about the G20—could not possibly be correct. The whole conversation was about the G20. So I assumed the Leader of the Opposition’s failure to raise the matter publicly for days or a week or more after the publication of the report reflected the fact that, like me, he thought there was nothing in it.

What have we seen since then to bring about the high dudgeon of the opposition in question time today? We have seen the White House say, ‘The central tenet of the article is incorrect.’ We have seen the Prime Minister’s office say, ‘The central tenet of the article is incorrect.’ We have seen the Prime Minister himself say, ‘The central tenet of the article is incorrect.’ We have seen the United States ambassador say: ‘These things happen from time to time. We’ve moved on from this. It’s not a problem.’

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