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

I read with much amusement the article in the Australian this morning. It is the most baseless article I have ever read. As the journalist who wrote the article I understand confirmed in the article, he telephoned my office and, prior to obtaining a reply from my office, went ahead and produced the article. My office rang back and he did not return that call. Though I know the journalist in question and have had a longstanding good relationship with him, this article is entirely a fabrication, and I question why it was produced in the way in which it was.

I thank also the shadow foreign minister, as she now is, given her great track record of originality in all things. That has been part of her career trajectory from the shadow Treasury position into the shadow foreign ministry position. This question of originality concerns the importance that is attached to the United Nations and the Security Council. There were statements by the former foreign minister, Mr Downer, and by the former Prime Minister, Mr Howard, about the importance of the United Nations General Assembly and about the importance of the United Nations Security Council. We, together with previous governments, both Labor and Liberal, are doing what all Australian governments have historically done, which is to obtain whatever support we can to try and prosecute a campaign for the future for Australia to obtain a position on the United Nations Security Council. In doing so, we are seeking to prosecute Australia’s international interests in the long term.

Part of those international interests in the long term goes also to our role in various international financial institutions. One of those financial institutions is the International Monetary Fund. The International Monetary Fund and our contribution to it, and in fact to other international monetary authorities, was raised recently by the member for xenophobia over there, the member for Aston, in the question that he raised before. We as a government have a deep interest in what fabric constitutes itself—

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