Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier on in question time today the Deputy Prime Minister indicated that somehow I was complicit in the downfall of ABC Learning, which is of course ridiculous and laughable. She also made the point that I have a commercial arrangement in relation to a property which is leased to ABC Childcare, which has been noted in my pecuniary interest register from the time I entered this parliament. It seems my sin is that prior to coming into parliament we operated a childcare centre and when I came into parliament I took the decision to dispose of the business, selling it to ABC. We are now in a commercial rent arrangement. To clarify the facts as they are, we entered into a commercial arrangement with ABC Childcare at the time. The rent that is paid by ABC to us is set at a market rate. It was set at the time by an independent valuer. It is indexed to CPI movements each year. It has a market review after five years and it is not linked in any way to profits or occupancy of the centre. It is a perfectly legitimate, normal commercial arrangement. I wanted to place that on the record.

The second point is in relation to the suggestion by the Deputy Prime Minister that Mr Groves is a friend and supporter of mine. Of course, he is a friend and supporter of people on both sides of politics. As I understand it, he sponsored the ALP state conference in June of this year.

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