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

The Leader of the Opposition well knows that in a press conference in August I explained the objects and purposes of the association. I did that again at a press conference this week. The Leader of the Opposition should know that it is Ralph Blewitt who sought the incorporation of this association, signed the form and took responsibility for then incorporating it. The Leader of the Opposition should well know that the commissioner then incorporated the association, obviously having been satisfied about the nature of the association and that it acquitted WA law. Any other statement by the Leader of the Opposition is sleaze and smear and untruth. This is a man who this morning alleged a crime and today has backed that down to conduct unbecoming, and who now is just scrabbling around grasping at straws to try to extricate himself from the fact that he has put himself in exactly the same position the member for Wentworth did with the Grech and Utegate affair—he has gone out and made an allegation he cannot possibly substantiate because it is untrue.

As I have said on numerous occasions, I did nothing wrong in this matter and no amount of sleaze and smear from the opposition will ever change those facts and that truth. Here we are today with no clear allegation even being put by the opposition. I anticipate that the opposition will keep dipping into this bucket of mud because the truth is they do not know how to do anything else. They do not know how to talk about jobs, how to talk about education, how to talk about health; they cannot be bothered coming to the chamber when we are introducing school funding legislation, they cannot be bothered sitting in the chamber when we are introducing the National Disability Insurance Scheme. This happens day after day after day after day. This is a Leader of the Opposition who is sure full of political brawn. If you want someone to lift heavy weights, he is your man. What he will never be able to do is lead this nation. (Time expired)

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