Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 2019, the Prime Minister tried to get Brian Houston invited to a state dinner at the White House, which he was attending as part of an official visit to the United States. That invitation was rejected by the Trump administration. The rejection first came to light thanks to the reporting of the Wall Street Journal, a serious newspaper of record. But when Australian journalists quizzed this Prime Minister about it his response was:

I don't comment on gossip or stories about other stories.

He fobbed off legitimate questions for months and, along the way, he kept shifting the goalposts. His department cited national security as a reason not to talk about the Prime Minister's attempt to get Brian Houston invited to the White House—no doubt it was embarrassing, but it wasn't a matter of national security. Later, the Prime Minister said he had refused to discuss it because he did not want to be distracted by it. He claimed:

… at the end of the day, it was not a significant matter …

The fact is that the Prime Minister's judgement about who he invites to the White House is very significant indeed. When he finally, belatedly, admitted the truth, the Prime Minister, true to character, wanted to be given credit for doing something he should have done much, much earlier.

We know that secrecy is the first instinct of this Prime Minister. The question is: why did he consider it so important in this case? (Time expired)

See this speech in context