Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please proceed.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In question time today the Minister for Foreign Affairs made an accusation of plagiarism in relation to me concerning a 600-word article carried in the Labor Herald on avian influenza. My office prepared an 11,200-word policy document on avian influenza in September last year. This policy document was drawn upon in extracts, which were then produced by the Labor Herald. Of the 11,200 words, there was a lack of citations in a total of seven paragraphs—paragraphs of an entirely descriptive nature referring to the scientific definition of the H5N1 virus, its historical impact on humans as well as the history of earlier flu pandemics. My staff have assured me that this was an inadvertent error, given that the document elsewhere extensively cites the work of a range of international and domestic health agencies. None of the paragraphs in question dealt with the policy section of the document. The foreign minister’s statement is incorrect.