Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to issues that relate to the caretaker period, those opposite have put questions to the government about this. But I remember the 2013 election very, very well. I remember that on that occasion the secretary of Finance, David Tune, said he was given a formal direction by the then Special Minister of State, the member for Isaacs, where they spent $6.5 million in the middle of an election campaign advertising in The Sydney Morning Herald suggesting that people shouldn't come to Australia illegally by boat. They ran the advertisements in The Sydney Morning Herald. I don't know what they were doing in terms of running advertisements up in Indonesia, where the boats were coming from. It was one of the most prolific uses of political advertising by a government in an election campaign. It was absolutely disgraceful! This Leader of the Opposition can only throw mud because he sits in a puddle of mud.

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