Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) 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?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

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

Please proceed.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During question time the Prime Minister said that I was quoting selectively the Reserve Bank governor. The quote was:

It was disappointing to us because the bold claim, rather than the more nuanced one, was probably accepted by some members of the community and, if they accepted the bold claim, that indicated that they weren’t aware that we had an independent central bank.

That is the full quote—the one the Prime Minister did not give the House.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) 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 Prime Minister claim to have been misrepresented?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

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

Please proceed.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is true that all of those words quoted by the member for Lilley were in fact quoted by the Reserve Bank governor, but it was topped and tailed with the following statements:

Ah, well, it was logically defensible, yes. It was a logically defensible position.

That was the beginning. At the end he said that the government’s position was logically defensible.

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) 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 Leader of the Opposition claim to have been misrepresented?

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

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

Please proceed.

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have been serially misrepresented by the minister who last spoke, who I think is the member for revenue—that young fellow who needs adult supervision, the Assistant Treasurer. On the number of occasions when I have been invited by the media to say something about the issue of superannuation, I have in fact responded to them. Can I tell you exactly what our position is, because he says no position has been put down?

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

No. The Leader of the Opposition will show where he has been personally misrepresented.

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where I have been misrepresented is this persistent nonsense that somehow or another nothing has been said about it. What I said last week, for example, was this:

We support these changes in principle, subject to the final details in the legislation.

               …            …            …

We note that the cost has already blown out by $1 billion since the budget in May—this vindicates our caution about the total cost of the package.

End of story!