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 Member for Wentworth moving immediately—That this House censures the Treasurer for misleading the House as to the full extent of his personal and active involvement in assisting the Prime Minister’s mate and benefactor, Mr John Grant, by using his office as Treasurer and a half a billion dollar funding deal with Ford Credit as political leverage and today, voting against Opposition demands for an immediate judicial inquiry into the OzCar scandal, and in particular for:

(1)

the Treasurer’s claim that John Grant and I quote, ‘received the same assistance as every other car dealer’ when 240 other car dealers did not receive a personal call from the Treasurer and did not have updates on their case regularly faxed to the Treasurer’s home, as with the case of the Prime Minster’s mate, John Grant;

(2)

using his office as Treasurer and the considerable influence of Treasury to have John Grant’s case raised at a meeting with Ford Credit where they were seeking over half a billion dollars of government support;

(3)

using independent Treasury officials to hand over John Grant’s mobile telephone number at the same meeting with Ford Credit with the clear instructions that they were to call him and help him out because he was ‘an acquaintance’ of the Prime Minister;

(4)

hiding behind the Labor spin machine in a desperate attempt to avoid proper scrutiny of his personal role in seeking to look after the Prime Minister’s mate and for voting against a full judicial inquiry; but most importantly

(5)

treating this Parliament with contempt by misleading the House on two separate occasions on 4 June and 15 June as to the full extent of his personal involvement with John Grant’s case, a serious offence for which he must resign.

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