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

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to these five volumes of the Cole report and the 2,065 pages of corruption that occurred under his nose. Prime Minister, why are you so proud of yourself for being incompetent and not criminal?

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

I am proud to lead a government that had the courage to have a full inquiry—the only government in the Western world that had the courage to do this, the only government in the Western world that responded in a very comprehensive fashion. I would say to the Leader of the Opposition that I commend to him a reading of the report. I commend to the Leader of the Opposition some understanding of the findings of Mr Cole, and those findings indicate that all the allegations he so falsely made against the honour and the integrity of the foreign minister and the Deputy Prime Minister have been demonstrated to be completely wrong.