Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and I thank the Manager of Opposition Business for confirming what I have said to the parliament—that there is only one member of parliament charged with a criminal offence.

For the member for Dobell, people know there are Fair Work Australia investigations in process and the appropriate thing to do is to wait for the outcome of those investigations.

Can I also remind the Leader of the Opposition not only is he mired in the hypocrisy of applying a completely different standard to a Liberal senator than any standard he extends to the member for Dobell; he is mired in hypocrisy in that when in government he was the first one as Leader of Government Business to get to this dispatch box to defend Liberal members who were in various scrapes and to say that they should be extended the presumption of innocence and that people should not act or draw conclusions until investigations came to an end. I remind the Leader of the Opposition that at that time he sat behind Prime Minister Howard, who said—and I specifically adopt these words as my own:

… a lot of people who are under investigation end up having nothing to answer for.

He was talking about a police investigation dealing with three Liberal MPs. He went on to say:

It's a police investigation and the appropriate thing for me to do is to let the police investigation run its course and then if it is appropriate I will have something to say.

Prime Minister Howard was right then. I adopt those words now in relation to the member for Dobell and the Fair Work Australia investigation.

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