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

I would have thought if the opposition were truly interested then it would wait for the details of the matter—and the details do matter—and making things up does not work. What happened, as I have said publicly, is that Mr Hodges acted alone. He was not authorised in his actions. It was a bad error of judgment and he has paid a price for that. No-one was more angry than me that something to honour people who had done remarkable things in times of natural disaster and other circumstances when Australians needed aid was disrupted. In terms of what Mr Hodges and Ms Sattler said in their telephone conversation, I would refer the opposition to Ms Sattler's statements, which verify that Mr Hodges told Ms Sattler that Mr Abbott, the Leader of the Opposition, had said that people should move on from the tent embassy—

Opposition members interjecting—

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