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

So we get to question 4 and finally we go to the substance of the challenge against me yesterday: that I had misled the parliament in terms of my knowledge of the Jakarta embassy immigration section’s document concerning these matters. Instead now we engage in the supposed forensics of who, what and when in terms of the operations of the border protection committee. As I said to the House yesterday, the border protection committee of our cabinet has responsibility for these and other matters concerning people smuggling and border protection.

Secondly, it is chaired by the immigration minister and has representation from other relevant ministers, other relevant bureaucrats and other relevant staff including my own. Thirdly, a number of my own staff would be on it from time to time. That is the normal way in which you handle things. But once again we find ourselves with the Leader of the Opposition trying to crab-walk his way out of responsibility. What was the basis yesterday of his charge that I had misled the parliament? Was it another forged email? Was it a concocted fax? Was it some other manufactured document or simply a counterfeit smoke signal?

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